Oman focuses on MICE

Oman’s Tourism Ministry is going all out to enhance its MICE sector. Business travel to Oman will get a major boost with the opening of the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.

TT Bureau

MICE Tourism in the Sultanate will witness a major shift over the next couple of years as many important projects such as the Oman Convention Center will be inaugurated. The Oman Convention Center will include theaters, conference rooms, four hotels with almost 1000 rooms, and major exhibition halls to cater to thousands of participants at the same time.

Another important upcoming project is the Muscat International Airport, which is undergoing renovation and expansion. The airport will increase its passenger capacity in three phases. First, it will increase its capacity to hold 12 million passengers, then 24 million passengers and move to a passenger capacity of 48 million. There are also other infrastructure and tourism projects within the 9th five-year development plan 2016-2020 that the Oman Tourism Strategy will reinforce.

Khalid Al Zidjali, Head, Oman Convention Bureau, said, “The Ministry’s initiative in establishing the Oman Convention Bureau under its supervision is a milestone towards building a foundation and achieving our objectives in the MICE tourism sector. We will be working as a specialised team to enhance this sector and regulate the processes, and use various external channels to promote MICE internationally. The bureau also aims to maintain a healthy atmosphere that supports all institutions and organisations working in the sector to host events and promote the Sultanate. The Bureau will also market tourism packages to the global corporates.”

The Sultanate was ranked 9th in terms of safety and security by the World Economic Forum in its latest biennial Travel and Tourism report. In total, Oman saw about 2.4 million tourists visit the country in 2015.