Discussion on Oman's tourism sector initiatives, challenges

Oman Sunday 20/August/2017 20:16 PM
By: Times News Service
Discussion on Oman's tourism sector initiatives, challenges

Muscat: A meeting of the tourism sector's steering committee was held yesterday under the chair of Ahmed bin Nasser Al Meherzi, Minister of Tourism.
The committee discussed initiatives proposed by the National Program for Enhancing Economic Diversification in the tourism sector and identified major challenges facing the implementation of some initiatives.
In the initiative for the development of comprehensive tourism plans for several wilayats and governorates, the relevant bodies namely the Supreme Council for Planning (SCP), Asaas and Omran have been involved.
An agreement was reached with Asaas to develop the master plan of the Governorate of Musandam. The Ministry of Tourism received the relevant bids for preparing the general tourist plans for the governorates
The committee also reviewed the initiative to establish Oman Office for Tourism and Conferences. An electronic application will be set up to promote tourist sites in the Sultanate and provide information to tourists related to hotel services, restaurants, car rentals and a number of other services.
On the other hand, the final draft of the service level agreement, which is linked to the one-stop initiative at the Ministry of Tourism, will be completed. It will serve as a service centre for investors and customers, hoped to be with the relevant authorities, namely the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Muscat Municipality and Royal Oman Police (ROP).
Further, the committee tackled initiatives facing some challenges, including the initiative to facilitate the establishment of integrated tourist complexes (ITC), hotels and attractions of a distinctive nature.
The initiative team solved 14 challenges facing some tourism projects.