Muscat – The sultanate, represented by the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, will mark on Tuesday the World Tourism Day by organising several events and activities aimed at enhancing the status of Oman as a distinct tourist destination.
This year’s World Tourism Day is being marked under the motto ‘Rethinking Tourism’. The United Nations World Tourism Organization chose the slogan after taking into account the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic difficulties.

With focus on stimulating the tourism movement in various governorates of the sultanate, MHT seeks to achieve the targets within Oman Vision 2040, which aim to increase the contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP from 2.4 per cent in 2021, to 5 per cent by 2030, and to 10 per cent by 2040.

H E Azzan bin Qassim al Busaidi, Undersecretary for Tourism in the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, said, “ Official statistics show a growth of 39.3 per cent in the number of Omani nationals working in the hospitality sector – from 3,752 in 2020 to 5,230 last year.”

Talking about about the sultanate’s celebration of World Tourism Day, he said, “The ministry, in cooperation with a number of partners, will organise the Oman Tourism Meet, on September 27 and 28. The meet aims to introduce the best practices in adventure tourism, the initiatives undertaken by Oman in this field, and to introduce the most important tourist attractions and places.”

The ministry will also conduct several events to introduce Oman’s programme to support the efforts of Qatar in making the World Cup a success, and to promote Muscat as a major city approved to receive the World Cup fans from November 20 to December 18, he concluded.

Source: Muscat Daily