A joint venture of South Africa’s Murray & Roberts and the local Bahwan Engineering has been awarded an estimated RO40m ($104m) contract to build a new hotel at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre development on the outskirts of Muscat.

The 24-month contract involves building a 50,000-square-metre, five-star hotel property.

The 1.7-square-kilometre Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre complex is divided into more than 10 construction packages, and the award follows other recent awards on the scheme.

Most recently, Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran) awarded the contract for the third package of the convention and exhibition centre project to Shapoorji Pallonji. The Indian contractor submitted a low bid of RO106m ($275m).

The work involves constructing the main auditorium, with a seating capacity of 3,100, a secondary 450-seat auditorium, two ballrooms, a food court, 20 meeting rooms, roads and car parks.

Omran expects the convention centre to contribute more than $750m to strengthen the local supply chain and create 15,000-18,000 jobs by 2030.

The convention centre, Oman’s first attempt to break into the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) market, is part of a wider tourism investment strategy. The programme is intended to boost visitor numbers to the sultanate and diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.