Steffen Wippel:
Port
and Tourism Development in Oman: Between Economic Diversification and Global
Branding
In: Steffen Wippel/Katrin Bromber/Christian
Steiner/Birgit Krawietz (Hrsg.),
Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism of Architecture
and Infrastructure in the Gulf Region,, Ashgate, Farnham/Burlington 2014, S. 101-118.
Whereas
neighbouring Dubai with its highly iconic buildings and landmarks is in the
focus of public and academic attention, Oman has remained more cautious for a
long time in establishing new architectural and infrastructural projects. But
over the last years, it, too, has reinforced its endeavour to prepare for the
post-oil era and pursues the goal of economic diversification. The article will
concentrate on trade and tourism that are sectors of special concern under the
current development strategy and go along with new architecture and
infrastructure. But while the international container hubs, free zones and
"integrated tourism complexes" will be intensely linked to global and
regional flows, integration into the national and local economy often remains
rather weak. At the same time, big efforts are being made for international
marketing and branding of these projects and – with their contribution – to
make the whole country worldwide known. This aims to establish a comprehensive,
yet multi-facetted – sometimes fractal and eclectic – image that fits into the
requirements of an extroverted post-oil development strategy.
Therefore,
besides the material role of these projects, the paper will focus mainly on
aspects of global marketing and branding, which is increasingly regarded as
essential under postmodern conditions. Conceptually, it is mainly based on
recent approaches to place and destination branding, linking them with the
postmodern thinking of authors such as Augé on the
socially and geographically non-integrating worlds of "non-places",
Foucault on modern heteropias, Baudrillard
on virtual simulation and the creation of "hyperreal"
worlds, and Soja who pointed to the need to theme and
market postmodern cities. In addition, the paper draws on writings by Schmid and Steiner on urban development and tourism schemes
in the Gulf region.