Over 140, 000 Brits visited Oman in 2019

As many as 140,000 British nationals, comprising both tourists and business people visited Oman last year and the interest for Oman’s unique tourism attraction among British tourists is on the rise, according to Ambassador of the UK to the Sultanate.

“We have seen a steady uptake in the interest in the tourism sector of Oman both in terms of visitors and also we think that there is an enormous potential in developing the tourism sector in Oman and a lot of British companies and expertise will be happy to be part of that development”, said Hamish Cowell (pictured), Ambassador of the UK to the Sultanate, adding that “Knowing that tourism is one of the parts of the Tanfeedh programme, we see enormous potential in tourism development.” He further said that backed by a 90 per cent increase in bilateral trade relations between the two countries touching an all time RO 1.4 billion in 2018, the relations between the two friendly countries are on a positive mode aiming at greater rates of growth.

“Trade fairs and products expos are a good example of Oman UK trade relations as strong trading partners in lots of areas where UK has heavily invested in oil and Gas sector, UK companies are present in a lot of areas such as service sector, and the largest single foreign investor into Oman with almost 50 per cent of FDI into Oman is coming from UK.” The Department for International Trade (DIT) at the diplomatic mission has always been looking to encourage bilateral trade relations between the UK and the Sultanate.

“Brexit will have limited impact on our trading links with Oman as imports and exports into and from Oman have always been delivered under WTO rules”, he added.

Rebecca Topping, Deputy Director, Department of International Trade at the British Embassy said that Oman has always been an important trading partner for the UK. Exiting the EU enables the UK to negotiate its own trade agreements with countries and groupings of countries all over the world.” “As the UK leaves the EU, we are looking to develop more and more trading opportunities across the globe”, she added.