Muscat Festival 2003, Was it a success??

[Special]

Speaking of Muscat Fes. 2003, did it succeed?? Especially with Dubai Shopping Festival taking place at the same period of time!!

I remember when we discussed this in the old forum, someone said something about visas (Am sorry I couldn’t get access to the old forum, due to some problems) and that it was the reason why the 2 festivals were made at the same time!! (I’ll try to post it here as soon as I get access to it)..

Well, lets see…What was there in the festival that would make someone say, WOW this is something!!

Personally, I’ve visited it…Went to the Quram Natural Park, Festival Area in Alkhuweir, shati Al-athaiba and AlNaseem Park, but couldn’t find something that interesting!

I went to Dubai as well, and I really hate to admit that I did enjoy it there very much, and when I came back, I just couldn’t go anywhere that the festival took place!!! Coz simply, what I’ve seen here cant be compared to what I’ve seen in the Global Village in Dubai!!

I felt everything was well organized there.. They had so many games which fit all ppl with different ages…The exhibition corner was amazing. I visited a lot of countries corners, and things were well organized, unlike here… You could find a lot of restaurants, around 60, whatever u wish to eat, from different parts of the world…So u can try something different. But here u could only get restaurants that serve shawerma !!

I really hate to say this, I really wished oman would beat dubai in this. But what I’ve seen was nothing close to that.. <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

[Shula_B]

Firstly, Muscat Festival is still <b>a baby</b> comparing to DSF.

Secondly, DSF is <b>supported and sponsored by</b> private and government sectors.

[muscati]

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Firstly, Muscat Festival is still <b>a baby</b> comparing to DSF.

Secondly, DSF is <b>supported and sponsored by</b> private and government sectors.

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Sorry, Shula, but that's a very lame excuse that you gave. So what if Dubai Festival has been around longer. Are you saying that the first festival really sucked and then the second was better and so on? Well this is the third or forth Muscat Festival so technically it should be that much better than the first, right? So how come people tell me that the previous ones were better than this year's?

Dubai Festival supported by govt and private sector? Well so is Muscat Festival. Didn't you see the long list of private sector sponsors?

Even worse, this year they brought in a supposedly professional event management company to organize the festival and no one could really tell the difference.

[hagalaz]

Short answer is yes I suppose. There were more visitors than usual, and everyone seemd to enjoy something about it.

But the organisation still stank. Could do better.

[Rohit]

The muscat festival concept needs a complete change. An overhaul.

The current format is bang on the DSF format albeit on a vastly inferior scale.

Since Indians form the largest tourists for DSF, muscat festival tried to cater by bringing an event (which was abandoned halfway thru) of bollywood stars and by simplifying visa procedures.

The whole concept is very shocking. Basic sense of marketing is diffrentiation of product or out-guning similar competition.

Unless they can outgun DSF, the existing concept of muscat festival is a recipe for failure.

If you are having ideas which are almost identical as DSF on a micro-scale as DSF, at the same time as that of DSF....it would lead to disaster.

Maybe people got attracted by the ads and tried Muscat festival this time. But if they persist with the same idea, it would be disaster next time around.

The concept of Muscat/Oman HAS to be different from DXB..
The glaring difference between DXB and Muscat is the unique terrain. Is there a difference in the Arabic traditions? (Maybe...).

(an Idea would be to...) The Govt. should invest in using the terrain (the mountains or hills) as a unique differentiator. Maybe build a modern fort(s) on hilltop(s) using traditional Omani design. Fort(s) large enough to hold events. Maybe use the unique Omani traditions / culture to stage events. But please please get them choreographed and costume designed.

All events on folk traditions are raw and should be choreographed and costume designed for tourist audiences (who have very short attention spans and fickle preferences)

The tourism department's focus on India is utterly wrong. Indians do form one of the biggest tourist travel market.

But not for Oman.

Indians travel for shopping (DXB, singapore, hongkong....), then there is incentive travel primarily for middle aged males to Thailand / philipines for dubious pleasures and then they also go to marvel and see the 'developed nations' - Europe and US.

Oman is NOT a candidate in any of these segments.

The Bollywood idea was bad. The composition of the Indians in Oman do not jell with this idea. Since a very very large amount of Indians travelling to DSF are relatives/friends of the existing residential Indians, it is important to ensure that any event catering to Indian Tourist should be a preferred event for resident Indians.

Indians in Oman are mainly from the south and do not follow Bollywood. A substantialy large portion of Indians in Oman are conservative and this is irrespective of whether they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians. They would not deem it fit to waste Rials to watch bollywood nubile nymphets dancing on stage.

Dubai has invested in pulling people from other parts of the world. Oman/Muscat can eaily piggy-back on this by positioning Muscat festivel close so that travellers can add on or extend the package.

But if the product is the same as DSF then it will not happen. Building the unique differentiators, investing on infrastructure and for brand building them are the only options for the Festival / Tourism authorities.

Otherwise we would have the trinklet selling stalls, Chinese peddling more trinklets, some expensive rides and ghastly stuff like 'the rain forest'. That guy must have laughed all the way to the bank.

[Neo]

That supposely global village in Al-Khuwair Area, I mean WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT. I thought the whole point of having a village with different countries in it, is to have items from that coutry. I go to Thailand, I see things are not from Thiland, I go to Syria I see things which I saw in Thailand and Bahrain. And most of those things ARE OMANI STUFF. Man that sucked!!

[Smile]

At very beggining many thought this time is gonna be a BIG event, unfortunately it turnout to be another failure, alot of people have complained about it.

The MF Committee should look into alternative to improve the future events as suggested by Rohit. Same old style is kinda boring, the only thing I notice is the change in decorations and loads of musicians.

I dont enjoy critisizing but I Only give constructive critism and hope Muscat Municipality would take this as a learning point.

[Dabdoob_Al_Helwa]

I dont think it was successful!
The children had alot of fun but the adults saw it for what it really was.
As neo pointed out, the stalls from syria contained stuff made in china and the china stall had stuff made in oman and the people who were selling hem were not even from that country. So it was really....hmmm....i thought really pathetic in my opinion! <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

[Invincible]

This is really sad, I dont get it sometimes, cant they see the flaws?

[Special]

here u go... its was Muscati who i was referring to..

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I think our government is counting on the Dubai festival for traffic in the Muscat festival. Since people who have visas to enter Dubai can now also enter Oman, our government is hoping that they might entice those people to come to Oman for a few days as part of their Dubai vacation. They know that it is very hard with the present infrastructure to get Europeans to come just for Oman so they want just the spillover traffic.

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I just think it was the biggest mistake Muscat Municapility did!! They shouldnt have made it at the same time, coz ppl would compare the 2.

U can check the topic we discussed b4 <a href="http://old.omanforum.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/CFB/1/Tid/141312/DoOnePage/Yes.cfm" target="_blank">here</a> .

Smile check out ur comment <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

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Yesterday I was reading an article about MF2003 and all the festivities that gonna take place. I must say this time they have invested loads of money in this event.
There's no way you can compare with previous ones, I hope it gonna be a biggest success.


<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

We all wished the same, but... <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

[Sapphire]

I tend to agree with Neo - I like how they had built the village around landmarks for the different countries but what a dissapointment when you went through the entrance and many stalls were empty and the rest sold nothing more than the souq - clothing, plastic toys and Omani gifts.
The very first one I visited, I'm not quite sure which year but I think it was 2001, was brilliant. It had cultural stands from all the different countries and many historical facts and gifts. There were also people who were native to their country dressed in their national constumes.

This year I was quite amused when I went into Italy and found 3 piece leather suites from City Plaza because they were made in Italy. Then I went into another and there was the rest of City Plaza!!!

Were these countries even going to come or had they pulled out?

[Smile]

Special,

The comment was made prior to MF2003 and that was my impression but I just find out I was carried away by the media. <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

[NiGhTFaCe]

<b> <font color="orange"> I wasnt in Oman during the festival as am till now!!.. anywayz.. from contacting the PPL in Oman.. i didnt hear anything special about the festival.. even the official site is not giving any details about it.. so this wont be ever an improvement!!...
then they were talking about getting International Singers.. the cycle was around Shakira.. but nothing happened!!... so that was better!! when i was away from that <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
by the way.. it need 4 a big push!! really BIG one!! <!--color-->[/color] </b>

[Shula_B]

My point is that Muscat Festival will take time to reach the standard that DSF has reached, by learning from its mistakes that has occurred, trying to improve it I better way, do you think DSF reached to this standard in a year or two, it took years and years of experience and hard work.

[Calkoon]

Didn't you guys realise that many of the big Arab singers didn't attend?

The non-Omani Company organising some of the music festival ran off with all the money for the artist, and so many didn't come....

Serves them right for trusting a non-Omani company to organise parts of the Muscat festival.

[Jinan]

Talking abt Global Village... it reminds me of nothing but those empty stalls and no proper food courts , it shud have been called Mashakeek festival instead!

[Special]

<blockquote><font class="small"><hr />
it shud have been called Mashakeek festival instead!


<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

eheheheh, exactly, that what most ppl call the festival, Mahrajan Al-Shawerma walMashakeek

[Mary]

Calkoon, I knew that too, I wanted to post this yesterday, but was hesitant. It seems that at the last minute, (perhaps was offered better deal elsewhere), someone else got all the singers and performers, etc... A real shame if you ask me. But they caught the person/persons and he/they are serving time, last I heard... Serves them right for cheating/stealing!

[Calkoon]

I think the Village was excellant as it gave a very good flavour of many different aspects of the omani culture all in one place. The foreigners that I took there absolutely loved the place.

Many improvements are still needed, but it gets better every year with a little bit for everyone.

Mary, I didn't hear about them catching him. Glad they did......