OMAN: Oman Air Not Interested In Buying Stake In Air India

Oman Air is looking to grow flights into India, but the carrier’s plans don’t include buying any stakes in airling Air India.

CEO Paul Gregorowitsch said the Gulf’s history with buying stakes in legacy airlines hasn’t born fruit.

As a businessman, you are far more eager to participate with a profit-making airline and not having the legacy of the state airline, Gregorowitsch telling reporters at a roundtable.

If you look at what the neighbouring Gulf airlines have done with state airlines in Europe, you see that those investments have been a complete failure.

Today we have no interest to make a bid for Air India or part of Air India.

If it would come to it, we would team up with a promising proposition from a successful Indian airline than setting up our own or getting involved with an ailing Indian airline, he added.

Gregoroswitch does, however, have an eye on adding to capacity within the country, a plan which involves growing its wide body fleet.

India’s National Civil Aviation Policy formulated in 2016 looks to enter the country in reciprocal air service agreements with SAARC countries as well as those located within 5,000 kilometres from New Delhi.




Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

OMAN: Omani Women Listed On Forbes Most Powerful

Seven high achieving Omani women have been ranked in the influential Forbes list of most powerful businesswomen in the Arab world 2017.

Amal Bahwan, Vice Chair of Suhail Bahwan group, was ranked 12th in the list, followed by Haifa Al Khaifi, CFO at PDO, ranked 26th and Rawan Al Said, Chairperson and MD at National Bank of Oman and Takaful Oman, ranked 28th.

Hind Bahwan, founder and chair at Bahwan Cybertek, has been ranked 33 in the list and Huda Al Lawati, Chief Investment Officer at Savola group, ranked 63.

Sharifa Al Harthy, Vice Chair at MB Holding, ranked 69.

Lujaina Darwish, Chair at Mohsin Haider Darwish was ranked 72.

To compile the rankings, Forbes collected information from annual reports and company websites. It also took into account company revenues or GDP in the case of government departments and ministries, years of experience and scope of the role of the ministry.

The women featured all represent some of the best known organisations in Oman that include operations in oil and gas, IT, automotive, banking, food and retail and other sectors.


Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

OMAN: Salalah Tourism Festival More Visitors Than Last Year, Ooredoo Introduces 5G Network

Ooredoo, a leader in Oman’s telecom sector, is conducting a demo of its 1.2Gbps speed network at the Salalah Tourism Festival, as a proof of it is continuous efforts to be ready for 5G.

This demo kicks off the highly anticipated Road to 5G in Oman, offering wireless internet of the highest quality at lightning speeds, and provides Salalah’s hundreds of thousands of visitors this Khareef with access to the network of the future, the company said.

Ooredoo’s network in Salalah will give customers the ultimate speed for enjoying the internet and staying connected, it added.

The demonstrated internet speeds set a new benchmark for rapid network service in the region, it said.

As a result of the new upgrade, visitors in Salalah will be able to download a full length movie in just two minutes and stream music, their favourite TV episodes, or play games with greater ease than ever before, the company said

Sixty-three days of fun have begun at the Salalah Tourism Festival 2017 under the slogan “Oman prosperity and development”.

A total of 43,993 people visited Dhofar since the beginning of Khareef Festival until last weekend, according to latest statistics from the Ministry of Tourism. During the same period last year 36,197 visitors had visited Dhofar.

The ministry also stated that temperatures in Salalah over the weekend ranged between 25 to 28 degrees Celsius.

This year’s programme includes a variety of activities in various religious aspects economic, cultural, heritage, social, sports, artistic and entertainment. Theatre performances will be hosted as well as traditional arts and crafts from 35 different countries.

Most of the events will take place at the Municipal Entertainment Centre, which houses several theatres exhibition halls, a traditional village and a children’s village.

The Salalah Tourism Festival contributes to the revitalisation of tourism in the autumn season which attracts family tourism from all governorates of the Sultanate and GCC countries.

Official and civil authorities are prepared for the success of the tourist season this year and to receive visitors to the province and provide all facilities and services that meet the needs of tourists.

The festival will end on the 31st of August 2017.

The number of visitors to Salalah during the first three weeks of Khareef Season that began on June 21 saw a decline of 16.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2016, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Total visitors number fell to 21,110 as on July 11, compared to 51,776 during the same period last year NCSI statistics shows that as many as 7,231 people reached Salalah by air as against 13,879 who arrived by road.

Giving a break-up of the number of visitors by air, the report says that the majority of them – 5,341 – arrived on domestic flight, while international carriers brought in 1,890 visitors.

However, compared to last year, the arrival by airlines showed a 20.1 per cent increase compared to a decline of 27.8 per cent of visitors who arrived by land route.

Significantly, there was a fall in the rate of visitors until the third week of the season compared with the same period in 2016.

Of the total number of visitors, 17,908 were from GCC nations compared to 28,658 in 2016.

Visitors from Asian countries fell to 1,884 compared to 20,413 in 2016, while those from other Arab countries declined to 973 against 2,148 last year.

There were 223 visitors from European countries compared to 340 in 2016 and 122 visitors from other nations till the third week of season compared to 217 last year, according to the NCSI data.

Of the total number of visitors, 14,628 were Oman residents, while 6,482 arrived from other nations. The Visitors Survey, which started on June 21 will continue till September 21, 2017.

The survey is being carried out for the 14th successive year, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Royal Oman Police.

The project aims at identifying the size of local and foreign tourism during the Khareef season and decide the growth trends during the past periods.



Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

OMAN: e-visa Portal Launched By Sultanate of Oman

The Sultanate of Oman has launched an e-visa process, which in its first phase in being made available for 67 tourist countries and up to 116 professions.

The project is aimed at speeding up the application and fee payment process through an online portal, and link it with relevant ministries, such as the Ministry of Manpower with regards to work-permits, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in relation to the validity of the commercial register and the Ministry of Civil Service in respect of government visas for foreign civil servants.

The new project currently has two visa types,tourist and residence visas, Hilal bin Ahmed al- Busaidi, director general of passports and residency said that work is underway for the GCC residents list.

Once the next phase has been implemented, it is expected that all nationalities will be allowed to apply online.

This new system will also allow hotels, travel agents, and tour operators apply for e-visas for their guests online, via the Royal Oman Police (ROP) website, with the fees remaining the same.

Oman's tourism sector saw three million tourists enter the country in 2016, with predictions that it will reach 4.7 million by 2020, reported the state's news agency.

Meanwhile,Indian Ocean Islands are fast becoming the new hotspot for Arab travellers, as bookings to the nearby tropics flood in, according to regional travel agents.

Figures from the Maldives Tourism Board say trips to the Islamic country by Arab tourists rose more than 22 percent between 2009 and 2010, despite the impact of the global financial crisis.

Holidays to the Seychelles by Middle East travellers have also surged, official data shows, with visits from GCC residents by the end of September this year beating those recorded for the whole of 2010.

Located on the East of Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands including Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives and Madagascar, offer a tropical climate all year round, and have long been popular among holiday-makers and honeymooners around the world.

“We’re talking about [growth of] 15 to 25 percent a year in holidays to the Indian Ocean Islands,” said Frederic Bardin, senior vice president at Emirates Holidays. “Good year, bad year, it doesn’t matter, people just want to go there.

I think there are a lot of Arabs who have just recently discovered the region.

The top destinations for Arabs are still in Europe, but the Seychelles is probably creeping into the top 10 now.

Basel Abu Alrub, managing director of Dubai-based travel agency U travel, said GCC residents are attracted to the region Islands for its close proximity to the Gulf, and ability to accommodate Islamic customs.

Proximity is a big factor, as the islands are only four hours away.

Islam is also spread in some of the islands, which appeals to the GCC traveller and makes them feel at home.

Many hotel properties offer Al Hilal food, and they also recognise that privacy is an issue.”

Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi’s flagship carrier Etihad Airways launched its first flights from the UAE to the Maldives and the Seychelles, in a bid to tap into the growing market.

Company executives said the destinations were “highly desirable” among Arab travellers, making flight connectivity to the region “fundamental” for Etihad’s growth.

In March, Dubai-based Emirates Airline announced a 100 percent increase in the frequency of flights between Dubai and the Seychelles, with as many as 14 flights per week expected by the end of the year.

As compared to January 2010, we are increasing the capacity between Dubai and the Seychelles by 350 percent, said Majid Al Mualla, senior vice president, Commercial Operations - West Asia and Indian Ocean.

The increase in frequency is the fruit of all our efforts and investment in promoting the Seychelles across our network. Our recent campaigns have stepped up demand for the route as well as opened up new feeder markets.

Travel agents expect that airlines will further boost the number of flights to the region in the coming years, increasing demand for new hotel properties.

The number of Arab visitors to the region will continue to increase in the range of 15-20 percent, Alrub said, boosting the need for mid-level properties in particular.