Tag Archives: The Sultanate of Oman

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, The Sultanate of Oman organized its first MICE FAM trip for the year for important MICE trade partners from all over India. The participants included representatives from travel agencies in Mumbai, Delhi, Cochin, and Hyderabad. Several places in and around Muscat, including Wahiba Sands and Jebel Akhdar, were visited by a delegation of six key MICE partners. The objective of the trip was to showcase the top attractions and the hotel properties to the MICE agents, and therefore, the agenda was to do multiple inspections of hotels and the sites suitable for the Indian MICE movement. The site inspections were done in the top properties, including Al Falaj Hotel, Al Bustan Palace, Sheraton, Jumeirah Muscat Bay, W Muscat, Kempinski, Hotel Sur Plaza, DusitD2, Alila, Anantara and many more. The diversity of options for MICE in Oman which included the beaches, mountains, wadis, desert among others were discussed during the visit. The team was very happy to visit various sites of Omanؙ—Dolphin watching tour, Museums, Nizwa Fort, the famous souqs and a visit to the Mall of Oman. The trade partners were impressed with the options available in Oman for the MICE groups with a combination of luxury and budgeted properties. The agents found Oman to be a delightful place as they enjoyed the Sultanate’s hospitality, landscape, and culture. The trade partners were thrilled to see the culinary options available and its similarity with the Indian cuisine. A big thank you to our DMC partner Zahara Tours for flawlessly planning everything and hosting at the magnificent Arabian Nights Resort & Spa! On 4 February 2023, the FAM trip came to an end, leaving the guests …

The Sultanate of Oman abounds with various underwater/submerged cultural heritage, which is witness to its role as an axis of the human civilizations since the early prehistoric periods. Since several ships, coastal human settlements and aircrafts containing collectibles with cultural and economic significance sunk in the Omani territorial waters, it prompted the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT) to establish a directorate for the underwater antiquities, the first unit of its kind in the GCC region. Ayyoub Nagmoush Al-Busaidi, Director, Directorate of the Underwater Submerged Antiquities, Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT), said, “The underwater archaeological sites and ships are a source of precious historical information as they contain antiquities of human existence. The archaeology aims to analyze the antiquities, identify the origins and the development of civilizations.”  “Underwater archaeology is a scientific discipline that deals with the studying sites, man-made objects, human remains, and submerged landscapes. This science should be placed within its broader framework of marine archaeology, which studies human relationships with oceans, lakes, and rivers, while complementing it with navigation,” he added. In 2012, the MHT has launched a program aiming to identify the resources and components of these antiquities, enumerating them, and determining their nature, and protecting them from illegal trade/natural factors, he added. The department is now working on formulating rules for protection, management, employment, conducting surveys, excavations, restoration, preserving, documenting archaeological sites, analyzing the results, and presenting them to the local and international community. It may be noted that Oman’s maritime history dated back to the 3 BC, when commercial activity flourished in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley. After Omanis gained good expertise in navigation in the 18th century, Muscat emerged as one of …

The Sultanate of Oman has prepared to combat COVID-19 in accordance with His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq’s high directives to form a Supreme Committee to deal with the pandemic. The committee has issued multiple decisions on various aspects of reacting to the pandemic and has recommended precautionary measures. In order to minimise the transmission of the virus at any stage of the pandemic, standard measures must be followed in the preparation for the gradual restoration of tourism activity following the slow receding of COVID-19. In support of these initiatives, the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and travel and tourism agencies, has developed a set of preventative measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19 when the tourism industry reopens. The pre-arrival procedures are as follows: Make sure that COVID-19 safety information is included in tourist marketing and booking procedures. Tourists entering the Sultanate of Oman are required to provide a medical certificate or other permit. The Sultanate must be visited for no more than two weeks. A hotel or resort reservation is necessary in advance. Prior to arriving in the Sultanate, register in the Ministry of Health’s (Tarassud+) system. Upon arrival in the Sultanate, tourists will be subjected to a PCR test and be quarantined in a hotel until the test results are negative. A room or a separate area will be provided in the hotel or resort for each tourist or family. Making reservations online or through an electronic platform is preferable. Avoid using paper documents and limit cash transactions as much as possible. It is mandatory to have international health insurance that covers the cost of COVID-19 treatment for the duration …