ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Sultanate of Oman and will initially provide a brief overview of the tourism industry. It addresses the challenges facing the development and advancement of ecotourism in Oman. The chapter examines the six main elements of sustainable ecotourism. Nonetheless, more research assessment concerning local perceptions of tourism employment is required, especially to examine the challenges associated with the nationalization of the tourism workforce. Other more recent workshops have continued to deal with the sustainable tourism theme, one of which was organized by the Ministry of Tourism in 2015 in cooperation with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The chapter evaluates the performance of ecotourism in Oman based on six main tenets: nature-based activities, preservation and conservation, environmental and cultural education, distribution of benefits, ethics and responsibility, and sustainability. It attempts to evaluate how ecotourism principles are being practiced in Oman, using the six most common tenets found in the ecotourism literature over the last decade.
