Oman- Sultanate's liberalised visa regime: Opening the floodgates for tourism

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Tourism is one of three sectors identified by the sultanate's economic diversification strategy that is expected to yield great dividends in the next few years.

With a view to attract more visitors from newer markets, Oman has started opening up its visa regime as well as standardised the system with its eVisa service.

According to economic diversification strategy (Tanfeedh), the aim is to annually increase the number of tourists to reach 2.7mn visitors (who stay at least one night) by 2020. Further, Oman aims to increase the tourism sector's GDP from RO0.749bn to RO1.50bn by 2020, increase the private sector's investment in tourism sector to at least RO1.8bn by 2020 and increase the number of jobs in the tourism sector from 24,900 in 2016 to 45,000 by 2020.

The ROP's eVisa initiative launched earlier this year in March aims to attract tourists from emerging markets, which have the largest number of citizens engaged in global tourism.

For example, from India alone, nine million Indians are expected to travel to the GCC by 2021, according to the latest figures from Colliers International.

Reports from the UNWTO suggest the outbound Indian travel market will grow to 50mn by 2021, with the average spend per trip by Indian travellers also increasing. Recently in June this year, Oman reintroduced the popular short stay tourist visas valid for ten days at a nominal fee of RO5. For the first time, applications for this visa can also be processed at Omani embassies/consulates abroad.

In 2017, ROP had given special visa status to citizens of 28 countries whose citizens are now offered non-sponsored eVisa. The new list includes countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Albania, Uzbekistan, Iran, Panama, Bhutan, Bosnia, Peru, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Georgia, Honduras, Salvador, Tajikistan, Guatemala, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Costa Rica, Laos, Mexico and Nicaragua, India, China and Russia.

As per the guidelines, the applicant should have a valid passport for a period of not less than six months and must be a resident or holder of a visa from one of the following countries: the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Schengen countries. The applicant's residence/visa in these countries should be valid when applying for visa.

The visa applicant shall have a return ticket and a confirmed hotel reservation in order to be granted the visa.

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