Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has granted 19 licenses for integrated tourism complexes with 81 hotel facilities including over 16,500 rooms and 42,600 housing units at an estimated value of RO4.376 billion ($11.33 billion).

It has also agreed a number of projects across Muscat, Dhofar, South Al Sharqiyah, South Al Batinah and Musandam, reported Oman News Agency (ONA).

These tourism projects also include 2,552 apartment hotels in addition to golf courses and a number of harbours, restaurants, cafes and shops, the report said.

The investment volume is estimated at RO3.120 billion in other licensed projects that are in the pre-implementation phase.

Azzan Qasim Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism for Tourism, said: “The integrated tourism complexes are a modern style of tourism cities that provide all services and facilities under one roof. Residents of such complexes can live with no need to leave the boundaries of the complex, where the integration of residential, tourism, recreational, sports and commercial facilities contribute to providing the foundations of a new living experience.

"These integrated complexes also provide the opportunity for non-Omanis to own property, constituting a mixture of different interactive cultures and providing an opportunity to attract capital and businesspeople to reside in the Sultanate of Oman and provide a supportive base for the national efforts aimed at attracting investments.”

He pointed out that the integrated tourism complexes have added new dimensions to the tourism sector at the levels of modern and unique architecture in parallel with the quality of the integrated infrastructure.

He added that integrated tourism also offers a wide range of options in terms of tourism facilities and services, which are among the most important pillars of tourism development. Such integrated complexes have become tourism destinations for tourists to enjoy various facilities. The hotels component provides the tourism market with hundreds of hotel rooms that provide high levels of luxury and a variety of styles.

In addition to its direct economic contribution to the GDP, the integrated tourism complexes also contribute to providing many direct and indirect job opportunities, and enrich supply chains in the tourism sector, thus enhancing business opportunities and raising the volume of in-country value (ICV), Al Busaidi clarified.

He added that allowing foreigners to own property in the Sultanate of Oman gives an opportunity to contribute to enhancing the local market while attracting investors into the tourism sector.

The Tourism Undersecretary said that such complexes must be designed to provide a unique living experience that is in harmony with the topography of the place. Moreover, at every stage, modern real estate products must be unique and different from the previous products as developers must keep pace with the rapid developments and to be capable of dealing with all variants positively and flexibly.

He underscored the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism’s keenness to follow-up on the implementation of these projects according to the agreed timetables through development agreements and plans.

The integrated tourism complexes also provide an opportunity for investors to own ready-made real estate through offering extended payment programmes, such as having the investor pay 10-20% of the property’s price. After this payment, the investor can receive the property and pay the remaining price within an agreed period between the two parties, which gives the investor the possibility of self-financing, instead of bank financing.