Sohar in Oman

Sohar in Oman has been transformed into a great location thanks to the focus on tourism related activities and it is being built up as an important tourist destination in the recent years.
The town of Sohar is very green and is filled with fruit and dairy farms thus it forms a great contrast from the surrounding deserts. The city of Sohar is easily accessible and is only a couple of hours from the cosmopolitan city of Dubai. The place has every thing from sea to desert and can be easily reached from the capital of Muscat, Oman.
Sohar has also developed into an important business center with companies coming in droves to set up shops in this city. The number of expatriates has gone up and the city seems to be on a high as far as business is concerned.
The city of Sohar was always very important in terms of trade and commerce and it was famous for its copper deposits extraction of which had started some five thousand years or so ago.
Even today also there are some three copper mines that are functional and they contain nearly twenty million tones of copper deposits.
The renewed interest in industrialization has meant that capitalism has also come in a big way to the city with rents having touched the ceiling. There are a number of places to eat and they serve all kinds of food including Indian and Arabic. The Souq or the market place is definitely an attraction and there is a fish market in which fishermen sell their fresh catch. So you can pick and choose the kind of fish that you want and take it by its tail.

The Sohar castle is a top attraction of the city and is a must see for people visiting the city of Sohar and the public gardens and parks also augment the tourist importance of the city.
So Sohar can easily be called one of the most popular destinations of Oman .



source: http://www.asiarooms.com/en/travel-guide/oman/popular-destinations-in-oman/sohar-in-oman.html

Sohar Travel Guide

Sohar. Well, it is in a great location.  It is very green, lush tropical Omani fruit farms, Dairy farms, ...  One side there is the sea the other the desert.  2 hours from busy mad mad Dubai, 90 minutes from Al Ain. A few hours from Musandam. And two hours from MUSCAT. The capitol of Oman.
It is a boomtown as of writing this ( anuary 2006). Within the past year foriegn companies have innudated this small town with expats who are here to work at building factories and the newest PORT.   With this comes the effect of capitalism. Rents have gone out of control, and are higher than the CAPITAL !!!  Shops, still, not much. A SAFEER centre. A LuLus...and the typical assortment of Indian and Arabic eatries. A KFC and a PIZZA HUT, Filipino Food.    Few hotels, none of them are really 5 star although ONE claims to be it definitely IS NOT.  Annoying cause the rates do not match the quality.
The great old Portuguese built fort is a must see.  The souq is decent for an Omani 'town'.  You can get basically anything you need here.  A really excellent FISH market on the sea where the fishermen bring them in fresh daily.  You bargin and take your catch home by its tail !
A few Universities, which make it a centre for studying for area locals and not -so -locals who commute from nearby mountain towns. A new language school, for the working adults to study at night and upgrade their English to be better prepared for jobs at the PORT.  A french language institute, parlez vous francais?


source: http://www.world66.com/asia/middleeast/oman/sohar

Industry

Sohar is currently experiencing significant investment and economic shifts making it the focus of attention of many local and international investors and businessmen. This change is due to a series of investment projects and economic giant in Sohar industrial area where Sohar Port is. Located east of the Strait of Hormuz, Sohar Port was established in 2002 and it is operated by Sohar Industrial Port Company (SIPC). Sohar Port is considered a world class port. With current investments exceeding $12 billion, it is one of the world’s largest port development projects.

The Omani government has paid special attention to the city of Sohar, and placed it in the priorities of the future plan of the Omani economy in 2020. The goal of the Omani government is to make Sohar a business and industrial hub and help the Omani economy diversify away from oil. In order for the Omani economy to achieve this economic diversification, the Omani government is investing in a number of projects in the industrial area of Sohar. For example, it is investing more than 5 billion dollars in the steel industry in which Oman aims to be one of the Gulf Cooperation Council's leading producers. In addition to the steel industry, there is also the industry of aluminium in Sohar industrial area. Sohar Aluminium Company was established in 2004 and it is considered one of the leading projects that play a major role in the sultanate’s economic diversification strategy.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohar