Muscat: Misfat al Abriyeen added another feather on its cap when it was named as one of this year’s Best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The list includes 44 villages from 32 countries across the world.The announcement came during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly held last week in Madrid, Spain.
Misfat Al Abriyeen in the Wilayat of Al Hamra, Governorate of Al Dakhiliyah receives thousands of tourists every year. Nature lovers, people interested in heritage, and cross-country adventure flock to Misfat from within the Sultanate of Oman and abroad.
The village boasts amazing terrace farms, beautiful alleys, and old houses built on top of solid rocks. The combination of these elements gives a visitor to Misfat Al Abriyeen a dramatic image from the viewing platform, which is a short walk from the entrance to the village.
Over the past few years, inhabitants of Misfat Al Abriyeen are engaged in restoration and maintenance of houses of the old town to serve as tourist destinations. It now has six hotels and heritage houses offering more than 70 rooms. Misfat Al Abriyeen village has been features by Discovery channel and other international media. The Wilayat of Al Hamra is expected to see rapid growth of towards the end of 2021 after the launch of the zipline project at Misfat Al Abriyeen.
The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO initiative was launched to advance the role of tourism in safeguarding rural villages, along with their landscapes, natural and cultural diversity, and their local values and activities, including local gastronomy. These villages stand out for their natural and cultural resources, besides their innovative and transformative actions and commitment to the development of tourism in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The villages were evaluated by an independent advisory board based on a set of criteria: cultural and natural resources; promotion and conservation of cultural resources; economic sustainability; social sustainability; environmental sustainability; tourism potential and development and value chain integration; governance and prioritization of tourism; infrastructure and connectivity; and health, safety and security.
A total 174 villages were proposed by 75 UNWTO Member States (each Member State could present a maximum of three villages) for the 2021 pilot initiative. Among these, 44 were recognized as Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO.
