Oman Economic Review – July 2019

EDITORIAL
Editor-in-chief
Said Masoud Almashani
Group Editor & Director-Business Operations
Mayank Singh
Associate Editor
Oommen John P
Assistant Editor
Muhammed Nafie

DESIGN
Creative Director
Sandesh S. Rangnekar
Senior Designer
M. Balagopalan
Principal Photographer
Rajesh Rajan
Cover concept
Sandesh S. Rangnekar

Senior Production Manager –
Print & Digital
Ramesh Govindaraj

MARKETING
Assistant General Manager – Sales & Marketing
Avi Titus
Business Head
Shivkumar Gaitonde
Advertising Manager
Girija Shankar Mohanty
Assistant Manager – Business Support
Radha Kumar

CORPORATE
Chief Executive Officer
Atulya Sharma
Executive Vice President
Alpana Roy

OER PRESENTATION

Distribution
United Media Services LLC

Published by
United Press & Publishing LLC
PO Box 3305, Ruwi, Postal Code - 112
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Tel: (968) 24700896, Fax: (968) 24707939
Website: http://www.umsoman.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced without the written permission
of the publisher. The publisher does not accept
responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person
or organisation acting or refraining as a result
of material in this publication. OER accepts no
responsibility for advertising content.

Copyright © 2019 United Press & Publishing LLC
Printed by Al Anan Printing Press LLC

Correspondence should be sent to:
Oman Economic Review
United Media Services
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Fax: (968)
Email: [email protected]
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For editorial enquiries: 99884854
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No 228July 2019

EDITOR’S DESK

Beauty has an

address

T

he Sultanate has set itself an ambitious goal of attracting 11 million

visitors per annum by 2040. This is a steep ask given the fact that Oman

attracted just over three million visitors in 2018. Skeptics are quick to

point out the fact that Oman has set itself ambitious targets in the past,

only to fall short. This time around though things are different as resolve and

vision are being backed by robust on-ground work.

State-of-the-art airports in Muscat and Salalah, a rapidly expanding national

carrier, The Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, multiple hotels, and

attractions like the National Museum, Royal Opera House Muscat et al. coupled

with the country’s pristine beauty are sure to attract an increasing number of

visitors to Oman from the leisure, MICE and business segments. The importance of

tourism can hardly be overstated given its overarching ability to achieve multiple

objectives - GDP growth, job creation for Omanis and SME development. OER’s

cover story does a deep dive into the potential of this sector.

Towards the end of June came the news of Renaissance Services selling Topaz to

DP World in a mega $1.079bn deal. Samir J Fancy, Chairman, Renaissance spoke

exclusively to OER on the transaction and his future vision for the group. Don’t

miss his interview on page 12.

ME

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