Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. At the opening of an elaborately staged evening at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel to launch Muscat as the Arab Tourism Capital 2012, Muna Musallam Mohammed Al Mashani was announced as winner of the highly prestigious Muscat 2012 Brand Competition.

Her Excellency Maitha Al Mahrouqi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Muscat 2012 Committee Head said that “the Ministry is pleased to see so many entries, with over 380 brand designs being received. The response exceeded our expectations with the winning design taking the imagination of our judges: it is a stand-out. We were delighted at the end of judging to discover the winner was a young creative design professional with the Dhofar Governrate, Wilayat of Taqah. The judging panel’s view was that the design showed exceptional creativity and is elegantly Omani,” she said.

The design uses the symbolism of coffee (kahwa) being poured from a pot (delah), with the delah’s design including patterns from Omani caps and kumah. Arabic calligraphy spells Muscat at thanking the lines of Omani of jewelry, architecture and Mutrah’s corniche. The colours used are from the Oman Brand palette for cultural and heritage.

Her Excellency Maitha Al Mahrouqi said “the brand competition is a great story. A young professional from Mirbat with a talent for design will now make a major contribution to Oman’s tourism program. This demonstrates the value of programs of this kind as a means of accelerating creative design and marketing skills in Oman,” she continued.

The Muscat Arab Tourism Capital 2012 brand will feature in the Ministry of Tourism’s local and international promotions. The Ministry will also be encouraging tourism stakeholders to adopt the brand.