both sites and creates more of a town
square in the middle of those properties
to upgrade the InterContinental’s look
and feel. This is a major project for us.
We are also going to build a new three-
star hotel in OCEC, the Ibis hotel. We
expect to see the construction start
this year. The strategy for Omran is to
build three, four and five star hotels
to support the OCEC complex. They
include three-star Ibis, four-star Crowne
Plaza and five-start JW Marriot. That
will complete our commitment to
develop hotels at OCEC.In addition, we are looking to improve
our existing hotels. We are looking to do
an upgrade and expansion of Crowne
Plaza Salalah. Also, we are going to
expand Alila Jabal Akhdar, catering to
the growing demand. We are also going
to build more accommodations in Jabel
Akdhar over the next couple of years.We have entered into a joint venture
with Qatari Diar in Ras Al Hadd, to
develop our first hotel there – a Chedi
hotel. The construction is due to start in
the fourth quarter of 2019.The National Tourism Strategy 2040
is looking to double the number of
international visitors, create 500,000
job opportunities and increase the
contribution of tourism sector to 10
per cent of GDP. How is Omran going
to be instrumental in implementing
this strategy?
Investment for developing tourism
and hospitality infrastructure as well
as lifestyle destinations, generating
employment for the national workforce
and promoting SMEs are our major areas
of contribution to the tourism sector.Our main focus is developing tourism
infrastructure such as hotels, managing
tourism destinations such as Al Houta
Cave and Nizwa Fort and creating new
lifestyle destinations such as Madinat
Al Irfan and Mina Sultan Qaboos. We
are also developing new affordable
accommodations, fusssed on attracting
domestic travellers.In terms of employment, we have
Oman Tourism College which is
focussed on training Omanis both in
academic and vocational courses, in
order to supply the staff to these hotels.
Our other contribution is to provide
employment to Omanis. In addition,
we lend SMEs a chance to sell their
products and services to these hotels
and destinations. Tourism is one of the
big areas of economy where SMEs can
participate in big way.What are the challenges facing
Omran’s operations?
One of the key challenges is motivating
Omanis to work in the tourism sector,
especially in hospitality sector.
Historically and culturally, it’s very
difficult to attract Omanis to work in
the hospitality sectors. It’s a challenge
because we want to boost Omanisation
in our hotels. However we are working
to sort it out. We are trying to reposition
Oman Tourism College and to draw