Tourism and hospitality

Tourism in Oman grew considerably during the last couple of decades. Underpinned by Vision 2040, the Sultanate aims to boost tourism and become a global tourist destination.

SASLO’s team understands the different tools and techniques required to balance risk and reward in order to maximise tradability in real estate investments, including those in tourism/hospitality sector.  Our clients in hospitality, tourism and real estate sectors include government entities, hotel owners, developers, private financiers, banks and many of the world’s leading hotel operators. We advise on all aspects of their tourism infrastructure projects, covering planning, procurement, construction and engineering, management contracts, sale-and-manage backs and single asset acquisitions. Our investor client base includes corporate owners, private equity funds and high net worth individuals. Given the real estate-backed nature of the asset class, transactions in the sector regularly involve sophisticated financing solutions enabling us to combine our structuring and tax advice with project management expertise. We have provided advice to our clients over almost 3 decades on the major infrastructure developments undertaken in the Sultanate including the construction and engineering of  integrated tourism complexes (ITCs) and residential and mixed-use schemes. We act for government and government entities, contractors, developers and institutional investors.

Our experience gives us an unrivalled insight into the often complex legal requirements of the Sultanate’s tourism industry and has enabled us to build up an invaluable understanding of the commercial and practical aspects of our clients’ businesses. We regularly invest in developing our various sectors know-how, legal training and disseminating our knowledge for the commercial benefit of our clients.

We can assist our clients with:

• Management contracts, operating leases and franchising;
• Acquisitions and disposals;
• Restructurings;
• Financing;
• Joint Ventures;
• Sale and lease-backs/manage-backs;
• Fractional ownership;
• Development and construction;
• Planning and environment;
• Litigation and disputes;
• Intellectual property;
• Tax; and
• Employment.