Citizens urged to convert private heritage homes as hotels

Muscat: Taking cue from the Italian and other international experiences, the Ministry of Tourism has invited citizens of Oman to apply for licenses so that they can use their heritage homes and lanes as inns and hotels for tourists.

During his visit to Italy, Ahmed bin Nasser Al Mahrazi, Minister of Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman, was briefed about the Italian experience of taking advantage of heritage homes in the old alleys and heritage houses and converting them or part of them into hotel rooms as their contribution to the tourism sector.

The minister visited Pianoforte in Parma, Italy, dated back to the seventeenth century AD.

Parts of it has been converted into a heritage inn. It has 42 hotel rooms. He learnt in detail how to convert some parts of the fortress to a heritage inn, how it benefits the owners, and how to make it modern in style and services without losing the originality of the fort and its components.

The Ministry of Tourism has urged the local community in the Sultanate to transform their old neighborhoods and houses into heritage inns to support existing hotel facilities and add more value to heritage homes. This is how the owners of such heritage properties can get benefits. Such heritage lanes and houses are plenty in the Sultanate as the country is rich in its history and has deep roots in ancient civilisation.

The Ministry of Tourism wanted to encourage citizens of the country to transform their old neighborhoods and heritage houses into heritage hotels and present this as one of the tourism products.

Some citizens have already started turning their houses into a heritage inn in wilayats Nizwa, Al Hamra and Man'h in the Al Dakhiliyah governorate. The Ministry of Tourism is giving them licenses according to the heritage classification system.

The Ministry has urged citizens in all wilayats of the Sultanate who have old houses to submit their application in the ministry or its offices in the governorates to get the licenses for using them as heritage hotels. This would add to the hotel establishments of the country and increase the number of rooms made available for accommodating tourists. The owners of the properties in old localities can get benefit of it.