The Gulf’s largest tourism and property conference will be held over three days in Muscat in October — signalling the fast growth of the Sultanate of Oman as a rapidly expanding regional centre for both tourism and large scale integrated property development. The prestigious Gulf Tourism and Property Investment Forum (GTPIF) — is being hosted by the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) which is organising the event with the Federation of Gulf Cooperation Council Countries Chambers and will take place at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel in Muscat from October 25-27.

The objective of the three-day forum is to bring together industry leaders from the tourism and property investment sector — including government representatives, regulators, private sector executives and potential investors — to debate and discuss the unique opportunities that exist in the region. It is operating under the theme of “The Power of Partnerships” and how these can help organisations from the private and public sectors in the GCC work together for a prosperous future.

Announcing details of the prestigious forum, Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Khalil bin Abdullah al Khonji said: “We are delighted to be hosting this prestigious international conference in Oman for the first time and believe that our region, with its astound variety of attractive natural resources, can offer the discerning investor a unique opportunity to share in the rapid growth of tourism and property development.

“With the solid and well established infrastructure that is already in place in the GCC countries, now is the perfect time for investors and developers to benefit from some unique advantages that the current investment climate has to offer in terms of integrated tourism development projects.”

High-profile speakers already confirmed for the forum include: Amr Abdel-Ghaffar, Regional Representative for the Middle East and Director of the Education and Training Department at the UN’s World Tourism Organisation; Ali al Rais, Senior Vice-President of Commercial Operations with Qatar Airways; Phil Kassalas, Vice-President of Development, Middle East and Africa with the InterContinental Hotels Group; Abdullah bin Aqlah al Hashem, Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Environment Affairs with the Secretariat-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf; and Jose Lora, CEO at Juthoor, one of the region’s leading property and real estate management companies.

Several hundred delegates are anticipated to attend and participate in the forum and will include ministers and government officials concerned with investment, tourism and development; representatives of Arab Chambers of Commerce; bankers and financiers; public and private sector investors; international and regional tourism professionals; international and regional airline representatives and senior regional and international hoteliers. Speakers at the forum will come chiefly from the airline and airports industry; banking and finance and from the tourism sector.

The forum will provide a world-class platform to showcase integrated tourism development and ecotourism-related projects and aims to help encourage further investment in GCC countries, address key areas of tourism investment in the current global climate and share international experiences and industry best practices. Forum organisers believe that the GCC countries are in a unique position to take advantage of global interest in the region and ‘get in on the ground floor’ to enjoy lucrative returns in an expanding investment climate through the many possibilities that are now on offer.