Hotel regulations tweaked to energise tourism sector in Oman

Muscat: The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has updated a regulation that was issued in November 2021 on the construction of hotel establishments.

The regulation seeks to keep up standards and empower tourism development in the governorates of the Sultanate of Oman in accordance with the existing needs. It also aims to maintain balance between the types of hotel establishments and the needs of tenants.

Saeed bin Hareb Al Obaidani, Director General of Tourism Development at the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, said that the ministry aims, through this modernisation process, to raise the quality and make a qualitative leap in the quality and efficiency of the hotel sector, to provide accommodation options that meet the requirements of citizens, residents and tourists, and to increase the number of quality establishments that may contribute to providing work opportunities for citizens and raise the sector’s contribution to the gross national product.

The Director General of Tourism Development at the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism indicated that the number of current rooms exceeded the target set by the Omani tourism strategy, bringing the total number of rooms to 29,684 by the end of June 2022 in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, while the target number until 2025 according to the strategy was 26,314. rooms.

The controls for the establishment of hotels have been updated according to the following: Compliance with classification and quality standards and the controls specified in the executive regulations of the Tourism Law related to the organisation of hotel and tourist establishments.

By reviewing and updating these controls on an ongoing basis, the request submitted to the Ministry will also be studied according to the needs of hotel establishments in each governorate, with priority given to reconciling the conditions of the 1,500 unlicensed establishments distributed over all governorates of the Sultanate of Oman.

The update, made in accordance with criteria of classification of services, the executive regulation of the Tourism Law, applies to all new orders to set up hotel establishments.