Oman to vow outbound Chinese tourists

Out of the 135 million Chinese nationals who travel abroad as tourists, the Oman Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is keen to tap into a portion of them who spend nearly $261 billion.

Presently, visitors from India, Italy, Germany, UK, France and GCC are the foreign tourists  who currently dominates the tourism to Oman largely.

The emerging “leading exporter of tourists” in the world title belongs to China according to the Director-General of Tourism Promotion with most of them being high-end tourists.

At a growth rate of 19.5 per cent in 2015 alone, 16,500 Chinese tourists visited Oman. Also, without approval from the Chinese government, no country can be promoted in China under the law. Interestingly, to promote Oman in China, the former has an MoU with the latter.

In 2018, a growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent is expected by the ministry. To visit and invest in Oman, a lot of Chinese tourists and businesses have been encouraged as part of a new policy as per the words of the deputy director, China Association of Travel Services.

Finally, a workshop organised by the MoT had the participation from 16 major travel and tourism Chinese firms as well as Omani companies in the tourism sector on the sidelines of Omani-Chinese Tourism Companies Forum.