TOURISM AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS OF OMAN

Oman, a country on the Arabian Peninsula is highly rated amongst the most beautiful countries of the world. Tourism in Oman may become one of the largest industries in the nation. Oman, in 2019 attracted over 32% more visitors from around the world when compared to 2017. Oman attracts tourist from developed as well as developing world led by UK and India respectively. Blessed with natural endowments like Desert safari, diverse coastal line attractions, caving etc., it also has historical and cultural attractions. Organization of endless cultural, sports and adventure events takes the nation long way as one of the popular attractions for tourists. However, there is always a room for improvement. In addition to better maintenance and conduct of various ongoing places and events, the government need introspection towards its policies including entry and exit policy, air traffic policies etc. The paper attempts to deliberate on specific interventions and make future projections that may boost the tourism and consequently contribute to the national exchequer.Undoubtedly, these interventions may pave far forward for diversified growth of national income -a basic need for sustained growth in the end. Not only blessed with natural endowments, Oman has good standing in world’s network readiness rank. The country stands on 46th rank amongst 130 listed countries. The standing of Oman shines in MENA region - Arab world and GCC countries. The mapping of network readiness depends on: Technology, People, Governance, and Impact. Each of these network readiness pillars have sub components. For example, technology has sub-components as: - Access: 72.4648 - Content - Future technologies The following sub-components contributes to the pillar 'Impact'. - Economy - Quality of life 79.4526 - SDGs Contribution Oman with technology access of 72.4648%, having a scaled quality of life as 79.4526% and contributes to UNO SDGs to the levels of 71.3937%. With this high volume of network readiness, Oman has infrastructure to boost tourism with the opportunities of mobile applications, augmented reality, virtual reality and data mining. During more than 2 years Pandemic COVID 19, we experienced more travel and social restrictions. The development of technology came in way to help. Further, strengthening of the technology that are in the way towards its practical use. Combining these all above facts and opportunities, this paper will present some ideas to boost the tourism in Oman in the era of post Pandemic COVID 19