Oman’s tourism appeal has rarely been the problem. Mountains, wadis, desert, coastline, heritage and a strong sense of local identity give it one of the Gulf’s most differentiated propositions. The commercial challenge has been making its fragmented supply easy for international travel sellers and visitors to discover and book. Shabib Al Maamari is building the infrastructure intended to solve that problem.
Al Maamari has more than 20 years of experience across Oman’s public and private sectors, including oil, aviation and tourism. Before leading Visit Oman, he held senior positions at Oman Aviation Group and Transom, working on sector development, promotion, business-development policy and merger and acquisition strategy. Those roles gave him experience in connecting airlines, airports, ground services and destination demand.
He became managing director of Visit Oman when the national travel operator launched in 2021. The company functions as both a digital marketplace and a destination-management platform, aggregating accommodation, experiences, transport and packages from local suppliers and distributing them to international partners.
By July 2026, Visit Oman was connected to around 800 tourism providers and accessible across 170 countries. Partnerships with global travel-technology and distribution companies, including TBO and Expedia, have extended that reach. The model is designed to give a small Omani operator access to markets it would struggle to enter independently.
Al Maamari’s work is significant because destination marketing often fails at the point of conversion. A traveller may be inspired by Jebel Akhdar, Musandam or the Empty Quarter but abandon the trip if reliable itineraries, live inventory and clear transport options are difficult to find. Visit Oman aims to close the gap between inspiration and a confirmed booking.
The platform also generates strategic data. Aggregated searches and bookings can show which experiences are gaining interest, where supply is missing and how demand varies by market. Used responsibly, that information can help businesses and policymakers invest with greater confidence.
Al Maamari’s experience at Oman Aviation Group and Transom makes him unusually alert to the mechanics behind that conversion. A package is credible only if seats, transfers, guides and rooms can be confirmed together. His earlier work in sector development, business policy and mergers taught him to see tourism as a chain of interdependent suppliers. Visit Oman’s platform is, in effect, an attempt to make that chain visible and commercially usable to the international trade.
The human layer remains essential. Visit Oman has worked to digitise the country’s tour-guide network, improving visibility and professional access while preserving the role of local expertise. Al Maamari has also been involved in the establishment of the Oman Tourism Association, which can give private-sector businesses a stronger collective voice.
Business events are another growth area. Oman’s successful bid to host an International Congress and Convention Association gathering in 2026 supports the country’s ambition to attract more meetings and association business. Such events can lift occupancy outside leisure peaks and introduce professional visitors to the destination.
Oman received more than 2.1 million inbound visitors in the first seven months of 2026, according to Forbes. Growth creates opportunity, but Al Maamari’s platform must avoid reducing the destination to commoditised inventory. Many of Oman’s strongest experiences depend on small scale, local relationships and environmental sensitivity. Distribution should improve access without overwhelming fragile places or weakening supplier margins.
That balance defines his leadership challenge. Visit Oman needs enough scale to matter to global sellers, enough technology to make booking simple and enough local knowledge to protect authenticity. Al Maamari’s cross-sector career has equipped him to understand all three.
His place in the top 20 recognises a form of tourism leadership that is less visible than a new resort or airline route but just as important. Destinations compete through the quality of their product, and product only creates economic value when it reaches the market. By building that bridge for Oman, Al Maamari is helping turn national tourism potential into distributed local opportunity.
