Sustainable Tourism Workforce Development in Oman: Integrating Investment Strategies, Omanization Outcomes, and Oman Vision 2040 Priorities

This conceptual paper develops an Omanization-centered mechanism explaining how mission-oriented tourism investment can produce sustainable workforce development in Oman. Investment design that explicitly commits to Omanization output sentry, upskilling, progression, and retention-is theorized to be the proximate pathway through which projects strengthen workforce capability, equity, resilience, and productivity. Governance and measurement are positioned as a supportive shell rather than additional causal stages: Vision 2040 provides target setting and accountability; the EFQM model supplies leadership and strategy routines that embed localization within organizational plans and continuous improvement; and the UN’s SF-MST framework standardizes indicators for transparent, comparable reporting. The paper synthesizes recent sector trajectories (2018-2023) and consolidates a decision-useful KPI dashboard (Table 1) and an alignment matrix linking design levers to Omanization outputs and Vision 2040 priorities (Table 2). Theory-driven propositions (P1-P6) specify testable links for future empirical work, including the roles of training/credentialing, demand stability, process-technology complementarities, EFQM alignment, and place-based pipelines. Implications are drawn for policy, managerial practice, and education/training systems, together with a sequenced implementation roadmap and monitoring and evaluation arrangements.