Spanish chain looks at conversion of Oman’s forts, castles

A selected group of forts and castles of historic and architectural value in Oman may be transformed into luxury heritage hotel properties. This initiative will be conducted by Paradores Consultancy, an arm of Spain’s luxury hotel chain Paradores de Turismo de España, which runs 94 hotels set in palaces, fortresses and historical buildings.

Oman is the first foreign destination where the state-owned establishment will be setting its foot. The business will run on the franchisee model, a path of expansion Paradores launched this year.

“One of the first orders for the new establishment will be advising the Sultanate of Oman to launch its own chain of hotels set in historical buildings on the lines of Paradores hotels. The work is to start from September,” a report stated.

Oman and Spain had a few years ago signed a contract to conduct a comprehensive study on developing forts and castles into heritage-style hotels. Taking this initiative forward, this April, a Spanish delegation accompanying King Juan Carlos I to Oman gave a detailed presentation on the study before senior officials from the ministries of Tourism and Heritage and Culture, and Omran.

Also during this visit, an MoU with Spain was signed to draw a roadmap for viable tourism cooperation. HE Ahmed bin Nasser bin Hamad al Mehrzi, minister of tourism who had signed the MoU with Jose Manuel Soria, Spain’s minister of industry, had expressed hope to benefit from the Spanish experience in tourism development.

H E Mehrzi had said that the MoU would cover investment, exchange of visits and include forming a committee to lay down guidelines of further prospective cooperation. Apart from Oman, the company is in talks with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Morocco.

sourced:traveldialymedia.com