[Oman-l] Re: Oman tourist statistics

[Ruud Kampf]

A reaction of some tourists about 'quality tourism' in Oman. My wife Kitty
and I had a wonderful vacation in Oman in 1995 and will be back for a month
at the end of October this year.

You can find a birding trip report in English and a travelogue in Dutch (I
am sorry) on our homepage:

http://leden.tref.nl/~rekel or go directly to
http://members.xoom.com/rekel/vakanties/oman/oman.htm

In 1995 we found Muscat as a cheap offer from KLM to fly to. After finding
out where it was I phoned the Oman embassy in The Hague. How is the country?
Can we camp freely? Of course you can! Phoned former collegues of a resaerch
organisation who had been working in Oman. Obtained a visa, spend some money
on faxes for car rental. Hired a LandCruiser for a very reasonable price
from Salalah to Muscat and just had a wonderful trip. Nice, hospital people!
Great camping on the most wonderful places, beaches, in the desert, in the
mountains in the north. Of course you need some travel experience, a GPS and
some common sense.

This year I have rented a LandCruiser from the same firm again. We will stay
the first two nights in an appartment in Muscat (found the adress on the
Internet, directly Email answer, some price negotiations). For the rest of
our holiday we will be camping again (our "one thousand star hotel").
Up to now very nice answers on Emails about birdwatching, whales, etc.
The people of the Oman embassy in The Hague were nice again, provided me
with some books on water management (see also
http://members.xoom.com/rekel/ushn/index.htm

We are looking forward to the trip!

Ruud and Kitty Kampf
rekel@tref.nl
http://leden.tref.nl/~rekel
Lat: 52 36.0965  N Long: 004 53.0677 E

----- Original Message -----
From: Perry H <perryh@omantel.net.om>
To: <oman-l@oman.org>
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 12:38 PM
Subject: [Oman-l] Re: Oman tourist statistics


> I have no idea what is 'true' in this sense of who is really a 'holiday
> maker'. perhaps the figure includes internal tourists (but I have no idea
> how this figure is calculated), gulfy tourists who dash down to Salalah
for
> the rainy season, and all those other folks who fly in from other parts,
> including those Joachim notes. Even so 600K seems somewhat
> 'optimistic'.
> Travelling to Oman is not an easy thing to do. The current
> policy in Oman is controversial (here in Oman), a lot of people question
> this
> policy which is known as 'quality tourism'. This is a preference for the
> 'blue rinse' set who will fly in, stay a week or so in an expensive hotel,
> take a 2-3 guided tours, also expensive, and fly out. It is obviously
> intended to limit the back packers. Perhaps not such a bad idea, but at
the
> moment few of this latter group would be attracted by the lack of middle
or
> lower end facilities that exist here.
> As well as that, they would have to
> acquire a lot of information in the short space of time they were here, as
> information is hard
> won, guidebooks etc are usually misleading, and getting about would
probably
> require hiring a 4x4. Also very expensive. I have seen a few bicycle
> tourists here, well 3 actually, one who had ridden from Salalah to Nizwa
> (!!!), and another couple of Dutch thrillseekers trying to ride from
Muscat
> down to Tiwi. They didn't even have hats! This is NOT a road to ride on a
> bike, unless you are VERY hardy indeed. They didn't make it, they gave up.
>
> Having said all this Oman is a fantastic place to tour around in, its
safe,
> you can camp just about anywhere, and it's hell exotic. But as a 'blow in'
> tourist I don't think its possible unless you have  a LOT of money and are
> prepared to rough it a bit - I.e. camp. You also need to do you're
homework,
> and have some luck and enough time to make mistakes.
> Having gone through the process myself over a one year period of weekend
> internal touring I'm tempted to set up a website to discuss this. Problem
is
> it could get out of date quickly, and I don't know how long I will stay
> here.
> Anyone interested in information is welcome to contact me.
> I still find the 600K number hard to swallow. Travelling about I have
> seen/met few on the road who were not internal tourists. I often check out
> the hotels as a point of interest. Most offer good services, but aren't
> cheap. There are very few facilities outside of the capital area, and Sur,
> Sohar, Nizwa and Salalah. A second rate hotel in  Khasab (Musandam)
> incredibly overpriced.
>
>
> Best Regards
>
> Perry H
>
>
>
>
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