Tourism Strategy to create 500,000 jobs in Oman

Muscat: Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) organised on Ramadan evening on Tuesday night during which Maithaa bint Saif Al Mahrouqiyah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism introduced the Omani Tourism Strategy.
During the evening, she said that the global tourism will be the main economic driver for employment in the world with 11 per cent of the total number of jobs after 10 years from now and will contribute more than 9 per cent to the GDP of the world attracting more than 1 billion international flights. She said the Sultanate has the potential to have a leading position in the tourism field.
She also pointed out that the implementation of tourism strategy in the Sultanate will bring about many benefits, such as creating more than 500,000 jobs by the end of 2040 and increasing the value of expected investments to about OMR19 billion of which only 12 per cent will be by the public sector.
As for the investments required to implement the Omani Tourism Strategy (2016-2040) she pointed out that it is about $18,968 billion of which 88 per cent will be by the private sector. She pointed out that the strategy implementation plan is divided into three parts. The first part (2016-2020) includes the launching of the major and direct Omani experiences related to the best Omani authentic experiences, availing more than 5,620 new hotel rooms, creating more than 76,384 new direct job opportunities and implementing the leadership and empowerment initiative.
The second part of the strategy (2012-2030) includes the launching of three Omani major experiences, adding more than 15,419 new hotel rooms and availing more than 126,900 direct jobs. The third part (2031-2040) includes the launching of three major Omani experiences, adding more than 29,596 new hotel rooms and availing more than 2,429,900 fresh direct jobs.
Said bin Saleh Al Kayoumi, Chairman of OCCI and a number of public and private officials with interest in the tourism sector attended the seminar.