ROVE ADVENTURES
Travelling and sports are a passion for Hassan Ali Mohammed Al Lawati, who envisions to establish Rove Adventures as a leading tourism company in Oman.
“Zubair SEC’s advisory and consultancy role enabled Rove Adventures to grow faster than planned. I am immensely grateful to have the unstinted support of a leading company like ARA Petroleum as a Support Partner of Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme, which has enabled me to further progress with my services and efforts to promote tourism in Oman.”, says Hassan Al Lawati.
Widening horizons
Rove Adventures is an Omani owned and operated adventure tourism company, which provides a unique, authentic and entertaining experience to residents and visitors of Oman.
Founded by Hassan Ali Mohammed Al Lawati, member of Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme in 2018 and his two partners, Hamed Al Saadi and Moutassim Al Balushi, Rove Adventures, believes in promoting Oman’s vast tourism potential. Hassan was selected for the Direct Support Programme seat adopted by oil exploration and production company, ARA Petroleum, which comes with additional support and more exposure opportunities.
“We are honoured and delighted to have such outstanding programme members to represent Oman’s SME sector. By anointing them as members of this flagship programme, Zubair SEC is making sure that their hard work and determination receives the backing they deserve”, said Sultan al Ghaithi, CEO, ARA Petroleum. He added, “ARA is pleased to extend an arm to support the strategic objective of Zubair SEC, in its efforts to empower their members to be self-sufficient, while sustaining their entrepreneurship.”
When Rove Adventures came onboard Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme, they were still a small unit doing small weekend activities and most of it was done through Instagram. “We started working with them to build a comprehensive service capability. So we prepared the groundwork which they implemented in their website providing about 23 key locations,” according to Nauzer Nowroji, Senior Advisor, Zubair SEC. Jebel Akhdar and Wadis soon became the activity points. Rove Adventures has built up a good network with local communities, in areas such as Jebel Akhdar, Jebel Shams, Misfat Al Abriyeen, Al Rustaq, Al Sharqiah North and South and Thufar, on which it depends fully for guidance, transportation and food. While the business was basically focused to internal tourism, the Direct Support Programme team started working with Hassan and his colleagues on external inbound programmes.
Having started their activity through Instagram, Zubair SEC held a high-profile event for Rove Adventures to launch their website and new season services in November 2018, and facilitated for them a strategic alliance with Designer Holidays, a leading destination management company from India. The agreement opened the gateway for the two entities to strategically cooperate to promote tourism offerings of the respective companies. This has in essence allowed Designer Holidays to add Oman to their destinations. Rove Adventures now has access to Sri Lanka, India and Bhutan with Designer Holidays. Zubair SEC, through its close collaboration with the Embassy of The Kingdom of Bahrain in Muscat, facilitated a collaborative agreement for Rove Adventures with Bahrain-based Sanad Travel and Tourism Company that has a significant presence in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, wherein both companies will promote each other’s products and service in their respective countries.
Hassan, who has a master’s degree in Mobile Communications from Lancaster University and BSc in Electrical and Electronics believes that Oman’s tourism potential needs to be further explored. His company aims to play a key role in promoting Oman as a tourist destination for adventure seekers. Rove Adventures also organises adventure trips in Oman including camping, hiking and trekking trips in the mountains, canoeing and abseiling trips in the wadis, climbing and caving trips and so on. They also organise team building programmes, sight-seeing tours, as well as local assistance and guidance for tourists in Oman. Rove Adventures has built a whole network of sub-contract partners to support them in Oman including Jebel Akhdar; visitors are escorted by local guides and even offered local cuisine giving them an authentic Oman experience.
Since joining Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme, Rove Adventures has clocked 50 per cent growth. The target is to double the growth in 2019 and onward. Rove Adventures now has a structured five nation international network.
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