Travel in city Muscat

New ASQ 2023 Global Traveller Survey report provides key insights into the evolution of traveller behaviours and expectations

Celestyal Cruises is expanding into the Middle East with new itineraries and new ports in the Arabian Gulf. 

Trains and wine make natural partners, be it a glass of crisp white over a leisurely lunch in a restaurant car while cruising through the Alps or a rail itinerary that meanders through a region noted for its fine wines. Many of Europe’s most prized wine regions lend themselves naturally to exploration by rail.

Birds are a big thing in Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. As you walk along, it’s not unusual to catch sight of the flick of a sapphire-blue tail, the glimpse of scarlet-red feathers cloaked by a wing or the pop of banana-yellow on a crooked beak. It’s as if the sky has reacted in rainbow protest to the dusty beige of Oman’s landscape. Here, you wake up to a cacophony of twittering and cooing: Indian Rollers, Bulbuls and Sunbirds forming a dawn chorus.

In Oman, visitors find pristine desert landscapes and nature experiences, all in a modern Gulf country with a vibrant cultural heritage.

The Omani city of Sur, nestled along the Arabian Sea, has been selected as the Arab Tourism Capital for 2024. Two hours away from the country’s capital, Muscat, Sur is a coastal gem known for its rich history and culture, traditional architecture and warm hospitality. As the Arab Tourism Capital for 2024, Sur stands as a testament to Oman’s commitment to preserving its heritage. The city was selected following several criteria such as the availability of infrastructure and tourism resources, the diversity of tourism activities and policies for preserving the environment.

Leading FX provider invests heavily into retail portfolio as global travel rebounds.

Turkish Airlines is moving forward with plans to spin off its leisure brand Anadolujet next year as its own airline, AJet.

Airports Innovate is conceived as a premier global event that captures the essence of transformation and seeks out-of-the-box ideas. It serves as a platform for game-changers, innovators, start-ups, and the brightest minds in technology to display their disruptive ideas and solutions, which have the potential to revolutionize the future of airports.

The following wines made from eleven grape varieties in two hemispheres share a simple characteristic—they come from well established wineries that are between ninety and nine hundred years old.

You will encounter unexpected aspects of life and culture when you visit the Italian island of Sicily. These may include discovering that pockets of locals are fiercely averse to wearing seat belts; that train cars are regularly loaded onto a ferry boat that crosses the Straits of Messina; that other ricotta-based desserts can truly compete with cannoli; that red bluefin tuna caught off the coast are so deliciously valuable that most are exported to Japan; that the island historically lacks a culture of rosé wine production, and that the Sicilian wine scene is so dynamic that grapes you likely never heard have become the latest highlights.

The Gulf region now has more than 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, which includes planning, final planning and under construction, according to research conducted at the end of September by STR, a hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company. This active hotel development pipeline now equals 40 percent of the Gulf region’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the global average of 11 percent. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the United Arab Emirates, the research currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5,076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market. The research had been commissioned by Arabian Travel Market.

Indian carrier Vistara reported its first-ever net profit for the quarter ending December 2022, according to statement from the airline on Monday.  

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, March 3. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Jumeirah Hotels is keen to invest in more properties in Europe. Having recently acquired Le Richemond in Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, Jumeirah with a 26-property portfolio now has five hotels in Europe.

Anyone still in touch with their inner child may be drawn to the whimsy, color, and movement in Shangri-La’s new brand video. But will the marketing campaign resonate and boost bookings among guests looking for a luxury hotel experience?

Online travel company Ixigo has introduced “Plan by Ixigo,” an artificial intelligence trip planner that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help plan itineraries and accommodation options. The tool also delivers real-time destination information and automatically maps and generates a detailed itinerary, along with weather and air quality index updates.

Travellers can’t seem to get enough of the Middle East. Recent reports highlight strong tourism growth in many of the region's countries – and that's despite continued unrest and the travel restrictions that have come with it.

Poised between the glitzy excess of the Emirates and the rigid conservatism of Saudi Arabia, Oman provides a winning introduction to the Middle East. Politically stable, and packing in a huge range of landscapes from rugged desert and turtle-nesting beaches to misty green mountains, you’ll find off-road adventures, winter sun and old-fashioned Arabian hospitality. Andy Turner introduces what not to miss on a first trip to the sultanate.

There’s something of the Wild West about Khasab, the dusty capital of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula . One hundred kilometres of the United Arab Emirates separate Musandam from the rest of Oman, and the disconnect shows – this is a far cry from the glossy shopping malls of the country’s capital, Muscat .

Oman is a charming Arabian Gulf destination that offers a glimpse into the past with serene coastlines, mudbrick villages, date plantations, and rugged mountains. It also has vast deserts and bustling cities like Muscat, Salalah, and Sohar. Check out our list of top things to do in Oman.