Oman Wins Best Arab Tourist Destination Award – Go Asia
Oman won the Best Arab Tourist Destination Award. The award was given as a result of a survey of experts of travel and tourism industry in Germany conducted by “Go Asia” for the year 2019. The survey concluded that the Sultanate is best tourist destination and highly preferred by travel and tourism agencies and relevant organisations and institutions.
The survey covered a sample of 3,000 German tourism officials of various levels who voted for the Sultanate as their most preferred tourism destination in the entire Arab region.
Salim bin Adai al Ma’amari, Director General of Promotion at the Ministry of Tourism, said that the Sultanate won this award for the third time as best Arab tourist destination. He said that this award confirmed the attraction of the Sultanate among the German tourism officials. He added that this would help travel agencies and tourist companies in their promotion drive for the Sultanate among their customers.
He added that in the first time the Sultanate had won third prize as best tourism destination of the Arab world. The second time it got second prize and the third time, it won first prize as the most preferred tourism destination of the Arab world. He said that this shows the Sultanate’s development in the German travel and tourism market.
Salim bin Adai al Ma’amari said that the Go Asia Foundation in Germany awards prizes to the best airlines, best tour operators and tourist destinations.
He said that this award has strongly motivated the efforts and plans for the tourism promotion in Germany and European market as one of the most important markets that exports tourism to the Sultanate. He added,” This is according to the pace of development of the tourism sector in the Sultanate, both in the in the hotel infrastructure and visa facilities for entering into the Sultanate.”
In the meantime, Ahmed bin Nasser al Mahrzi, Minister of Tourism, met Thomas Bareiß, Minister of State for Economic and Energy Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany and discussed bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries in the area pf tourism.
Al Mahrzi also met his Lebanese counterpart Avedis Guidanian and discussed the bilateral relations in the field of tourism, in addition to cooperation between the Sultanate and Lebanon and to benefit from both countries’ expertise. He also met Gloria Guevara Manzo, President and CEO of World Travel and Tourism Council. During the meeting, they discussed global tourism developments and growth, as well as employment opportunities created in this sector at various levels. They also discussed ways of cooperation in tourism.
The Minister of Tourism also met officials of several international tourism companies and discussed with them investments in the sector, facilities provided by the Sultanate to investors and facilities and advantages to attract tourists.
There was huge turnout in the pavilion of the Sultanate on the first day of ITB Berlin. The visitors of various nationalities learnt about the tourism components for which the Sultanate is known in the world. They were also informed about the facilities given by various organisations of the country. Various information booklets about the tourism destinations were also distributed at the occasion. The tourism companies and hotel establishments participating in the pavilion of the Sultanate explained to visitors about the packages they offer and their benefits.
On the side-lines, the officials of the Omani hotel and tourism companies held meetings with their foreign counterparts to explore opportunities of cooperation to bring more tourists to the Sultanate.
— ONA
