Muscat did in one month of 2024 what some Gulf capitals take a decade to do: St. Regis opened its first Oman resort on the Al Mouj waterfront in June, Mandarin Oriental opened its first Oman hotel on Shatti Al-Qurum days earlier — and Hotel Indigo took the brand up to the edge of the Jabal Akhdar canyon.
The St. Regis Al Mouj Muscat Resort arrived with superyacht-curved architecture by Ibrahim Jaidah, 250 rooms and suites including one-to-three-bedroom duplexes, a private beach on the Al Mouj waterfront, views over the Greg Norman golf course, nine restaurants and bars — from Coya and Roberto’s to a Hakkasan offshoot — and the first Guerlain spa in the country. Developer Alfardan Group positioned it as Oman’s new social address, with ballrooms for 1,000 guests.
Mandarin Oriental, Muscat chose the established Shatti Al-Qurum seafront: 103 rooms and 47 suites in desert-rose marble and ash wood by Xavier Cartron, bed headboards nodding to the Omani kuma cap, brass lanterns quoting the khanjar dagger, an 800 m² ballroom facing the sea — and 156 branded residences alongside. It is the group’s first address in the Sultanate, and it reads as an urban resort rather than a compound.
The third opening of the cycle is vertical: Hotel Indigo Jabal Akhdar — the brand’s first resort in the Middle East — put 173 rooms, suites and chalets on the Sayq Plateau 2,000 meters up in the Hajar mountains, two hours from the capital, giving Muscat a genuine two-center itinerary of coast plus cool mountain air that no other Gulf capital can offer.
They join a luxury bench that was already deep for a city of 1.7 million: Al Bustan Palace, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in its own bay; The Chedi Muscat with its 103-meter Long Pool; Jumeirah Muscat Bay tucked into a cove south of Qantab. With Oman targeting 33,000 hotel rooms by the end of 2025, the capital’s openings are calibrated rather than frenzied — which is precisely the point.
Muscat’s opening season was short, deliberate and perfectly aimed: one beach-golf flagship, one city-sea classic, one canyon outpost. Our call — take the Mandarin Oriental if your trip is Muscat itself, the St. Regis if golf and marina life are the point, and add two nights at Jabal Akhdar either way. Oman has stopped underselling itself; book before the rest of the market notices.
Subscribe to the digest and receive key market signals every two weeks.