Opaz pays great attention to tap Duqm tourism potential

Muscat: The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz), represented by the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad), pays great attention to the tourism sector and developing this sector in the region by providing appropriate investment environment and infrastructure needed for the projects.

Engineer Abdullah bin Salem Al-Hakamani, Director of the Technical Affairs Department in the Special Economic Zone in Duqm, said that the efforts made by the Authority have borne fruit in increasing the number of investments in the tourism sector, as more than 30 usufruct contracts have been signed so far for large tourism projects, with an investment volume of OMR526.286 million.

He pointed out that a large number of these projects have been implemented until this year, including the establishment and completion of a number of tourism projects such as resorts, hotels, apartments and other projects.

He said that the number of hotel rooms in the Duqm Special Zone and other parts of the wilayat reached approximately 2,500 hotel rooms, varying between luxury apartments, tourist resorts, and multi-purpose rooms.

He explained that the economic zone has witnessed, in the past nine months of the current year, an increase in the number of tourists and businessmen to the region for large projects expected to be implemented, which has reflected positively on the increase in the occupancy rate in hotels and.

Engineer Abdullah Al Hakamani added that the tourist area in the comprehensive plan of the Special Economic Zone in Duqm was determined to be 18 square kilometres and the length of the waterfront is 19 kilometres. It now includes 7 tourism projects and is still a large area to accommodate a group of large tourism projects.

He pointed out that a 14-kilometre-long coastal road will be implemented, and it is now in the support phase there are a group of public facilities that will be implemented by the region, which are roads and services that serve the tourism side an amount of more than OMR20 million has been allocated during this year.