Travel in Oman

Etihad Airways looks forward to welcoming over 1.5 million travellers at Abu Dhabi International Airport between November 21 and January 8. Abu Dhabi kicked off a calendar of events with The Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held between November 17 and 20 last week. Football fans from around the world will also be flocking to the region as the FIFA World Cup started in Doha from Sunday. “Etihad with its partners, is geared up and ready to host 1.5 million expected guests over the next six weeks,” said Shaeb Al Najjar, general manager of hub operations at Etihad Airways.

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.

Italian corporate travel agency BizAway has launched a joint venture with Dubai investor Seed Group.

Despite a sluggish international travel market, the pace of recovery in the Middle East aviation market accelerated throughout 2022 and is expected to take off over the next 10 years with the region’s share of the global fleet set to expand. In its “Global Fleet and MRO Market Forecast 2023-2033,” global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman noted that the Middle East remains among the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world, with the regional fleet set to expand 5.1 percent annually over the next decade. The report further noted that the Middle East’s share of global fleet will grow over the decade from 4.9 percent in 2023 to 6 percent in 2033.  Meanwhile, the global fleet is projected to expand one-third by 2033, to well over 36,000 aircraft, with Oliver Wyman also anticipating a record number of aircraft deliveries over the next 10 years (despite current supply chain constraints). The Middle East fleet’s growth over the next decade will primarily be driven by the addition of narrow bodies. Historically, the Middle Eastern fleet has been primarily made up of widebodies. But moving forward, the report observed that narrow bodies will increase to 48 percent of the fleet from 39 percent, while wide bodies will decline to 48 percent from 56 percent.

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

Many have a passing familiarity with frankincense given its role in the Bible and symbolic role in religion. In Oman, where some of the world’s best frankincense is produced, it is pervasive in all areas of society: from health and wellness, to hospitality and hosting, where the aromatic fragrance is burned to create a welcoming ambience. It is even burned during a woman’s pregnancy and after birth to protect the newborn and create a purified atmosphere.

Saudi Arabian auto rental firm Lumi has hired Saudi Fransi Capital and EFG Hermes to arrange the sale of 30 percent of its shares in a planned initial public offering (IPO), two sources told Reuters. The kingdom’s largest travel company Seera, which owns Lumi, won approval for the float from Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) last week. Companies that secure approval from the CMA have six months to launch their public share sale.

Saudi Arabia has the largest hotel construction activity in the Middle East and Africa region, followed by United Arab Emirates, according to hotel research firm STR. Saudi Arabia topped the regional list with 42,033 hotel rooms, followed by United Arab Emirates with 22,324 rooms, as per March 2023 pipeline data report from STR. Most of the region’s pipeline activity is focused in the Middle East, STR said. In March, around 119,505 rooms were under construction in the Middle East and Africa, which is down 6 percent compared to March 2022. STR further noted that each of the four world regions — Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the Americas — showed a year-over-year decline in hotel construction activity, with Asia Pacific coming closest to its 2022 comparable. However, the picture is more positive for the Middle East and Africa. The region has 45,529 rooms in the “final planning stage,” up 20 percent year-on-year, while the rooms in the “planning stage” have gone up to 84,116, an increase of 21.2 percent year-on-year.

Israel voiced hope on Wednesday that Saudi authorities would admit direct flights for its Muslim citizens who want to make the Haj pilgrimage, which begins next month, in what would mark another step toward normalizing relations.

The national security advisors of India, U.S., the United Arab Emirates, and the Saudi Crown Prince met in Riyadh. They discussed ways to develop a joint infrastructure that connects Gulf and Arab countries via a railway network and also extends to India via shipping lanes. The White House issued a statement that the advisors met in Riyadh to “advance their shared vision of a more secure and prosperous Middle East region interconnected with India and the world,” American news website Axios reported. The Indian and UAE authorities did not issue separate readouts publicly. India is particularly keen to participate in the project to build a brand as an infrastructure builder in the railway sector. Boasting a strong rail network at home and buoyed by the success of creating such infrastructure in Sri Lanka, India has the confidence to do it overseas. It wants private and public sector enterprises to explore the region’s potential economic and infrastructure opportunities. Moreover, India’s connectivity with its Western neighbors could be enhanced as it can use shipping routes to reach West Asian ports such as Chabahar and Bandar-e-Abbas (Iran), Duqm (Oman), Dubai (UAE), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and Kuwait City. According to the Axios report, the idea for the railway project germinated at the I2U2 forum — which includes the U.S., Israel, the UAE and India — established in late 2021 to discuss strategic infrastructure projects in West Asia.

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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?

The Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi has announced its growth roadmap for 2023, aiming to promote and advance the culture and tourism sectors in Abu Dhabi. The emirate plans to attract over 24 million visitors in 2023, an increase from 18 million in the previous year.

Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism is seeking to establish a tourism representative office in China, part of the ministry’s efforts to develop marketing plans that promote Oman’s tourism attractions through its global offices.

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.

More Indians are taking personal loans to meet vacation-related expenses, according to the findings of a survey titled ‘How India travels using holiday loans’, conducted by online loan platform Paisabazaar.

I want a “full force” summer this year. Snow cones, inner tubes, bug spray, camp weeks, s’mores, all of it. I had quite the schedule lined up, including a night camping under the stars to spot falling stars and a dinner party right on the beach with a bonfire to boot. So far, I kicked off this “full force” summer right with a stay at Lake Austin Spa, a proper spa but camp-vibes resort right on the waterfront of Austin’s lazy water reservoir beloved by boaters and proud Texans. It’s the summer resort for what I call “spa camp,” an indulgent adult way to savor excellent spa treatments while taking in the no-fuss hospitality of Texas from a hammock or boat dock.

One part of the globe has suffered perhaps the most skepticism from travelers in recent years: the Middle East and North Africa. But this year, the region is experiencing a spike in visitor numbers, astounding Middle East travel experts with its sudden resurgence.

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.

The Middle East is a paradox. Located at the cultural crossroads between east and west, the region nowadays tends to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, but also served as one of the major cradles of human civilization and birthplace of the world’s three great monotheisms.

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.