 Welcome to Oman Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020. This is the Oman Pavilion and the theme is the frankincense tree and I'll show you a bit more of it. The exterior of the building, as you can see, there's some wood fins and these are 100% sustainable and they're from Italy. They create like a protective type of shadow just like how the tree is protecting life. That's it. And there's a whole bunch of them all the way around the pavilion. Yes, and they're all around the pavilion to symbolize exactly that of protecting the life and how Oman is also preserving and protecting the frankincense tree and how it's also protected us all these years and into civilization as well. We have at least 10 frankincense trees come along. As you can see, these are the frankincense trees and they were rescued in 2013. They're 30 years old. Stop. We have to go around because we can go over. That means it's full inside. Let me know when you resume. One second, one second, one second. Over here we have the frankincense sanitizer. All the guests are allowed and able to use a frankincense sanitizer before they enter the pavilion. As we get closer to the entrance, we have a screen that shows the location of the Oman and the population and also our majesty. Welcome. On the walls we have an image, a symbolism of the bark. It symbolizes the bark of the tree. It's created by fiber. It's not real. And as you come closer, you are welcomed by the mother tree, a replica of the mother tree. As you come closer to the mother tree, it welcomes you with beauty and emotions because this is a tree that goes at least 7,000 years back and it's located in Salala, the far. And it has been there through different types of cultures from ancient Egyptian time to early Christianity and also in ancient Chinese time. And all these periods they use the frankincense for different means from mummification rituals to prayer and to medicine. Can you explain a bit more what's special about the frankincense tree? Okay, that was me giving you how it's connected. Connecting minds because it's connected through... With the three examples that I gave of the three cultures, this is to show you how it's connecting minds. The frankincense grows on the bark of the tree. As you can see, it has a gooey type of texture. The frankincense is a raisin and it grows only on the bark and a bit of the stems. The tree is also very medicinal. It has health benefits. It's good for the immune system, for skin and for hair and for nails. What's happened with this boat right there? Okay, they just brought this one in. Wait, wait. Let me just get proper information for that. How is it? Nothing, nothing, nothing. It's just decor. Okay, no problem. Let's continue. The designs are probably up. Yeah, what I was going to tell you is we could talk about the image but not this. This was brought in for National Day. Okay. Okay. So, on the image there? On this image, you see it says experience in nation. You have at least a theme and the style of what Oman represents. We don't only just have the desert. We also have mountains and we have greenery spaces. And this is what combines everything together as a nation. Okay. As we go to the first floor. Yeah. As we go to the first floor, we're going to be approaching the sustainability floor. And in this floor, we are going to experience the different projects that are taking place that encourage sustainability and are eco-friendly to the environment. So, these projections on the walls are made by Omani designers? Yeah. Would you like me to mention that? Yeah. As you're coming up the stairs, everything that you see has been created by Omani, the Omani youth including the images that you see on the wall with the projector. Right. Before we go in, there are a couple of projects. You want me to talk about all of them? Some of them. That you want. A few. The one you want. Yeah. Welcome to Zone B and this is the forest of sustainability. And in here, we are going to be welcomed by baby frankincense lookalike trees and their flat screens with projectors at the bottom. And each screen is showing you the projects that are taking place in Omani that are all sustainable and eco-friendly to the country and to the nation. So, how much renewable energy is happening? I see wind power. Is there solar power? There must be, right? A lot of solar power. Yeah. But this is the only information we have is that it's a wind power plant. So, 50MW. Okay. And here we have ecological utopia. It's called Al Effran city. And these architects are trying to create a sustainable city for the location by building environmental sustainable urban city. And one of my favorites is the palm date plantation project where they're using drones to plant palm trees. Wow. The drones just drop these dates from the air. Yeah. And then they pollinate. Wow. Then they let the bees do the work. Okay. Okay. Do you want to cover one more? Yeah. Let's go around a little bit. Yeah. Or you want to do all? Yeah. Let's do... Maybe we'll just do three more. And the last one is the country. Okay. Beauty of the country. Okay. This next project is from a waste landfills to feeding stations for eagles in Alamrat in Oman. So they're trying to preserve the eagles and the birds of Oman as they're getting instinct... extinct. The eagles are amazing in the nature and a very big pride for the country, right? For the... For the Middle East, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Over here we have... We get to show you the Arabian leopard which are also very few. And Oman has a sustainable wildlife. It's a conservation. And you have foxes and leopards and all types of animals that are being kept safe. And over here we have a fish farming. It's the fish farm where they're trying to use recycled fish waste. And in that way they help the cat. Whatever is remaining from the waste, the cat is able to eat that. Yeah. It's also... The whole pavilion is architected by Omani architects? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the conceptual design was designed by two young female Omanis, okay? They just designed the conceptual design and then there was another company that created the components, the materials. But each and every piece that you see was designed and created by Omanis. And the last one here is images of the beautiful country and the four seasons that it has. This is all across the Sultanate of Oman. It gets pretty hot in the summer, but in the winter it's very nice to... Cool. Yeah. It's chilly at night. And normally during summer in Moscow and other areas it's hot, but in Salala it's very green and there's like rainfall so it gets really cold. So as we're approaching the next zone over here we have the beautiful National Orchestra. It's just starting. Okay, so this will take a few minutes. And they'll be playing on this screen right here. Yes, so the song that they're playing was inspired by the Frankincense and was only created, should I say that again? Yeah. The orchestra is playing, was inspired and created for the expo and for the Oman Pavilion and it's inspired by the Frankincense. And as you can see they're wearing the traditional attire and representing Oman in full. And the ceiling gives you a sense of the bark of a tree. And we call this the Colosseum. As an introduction at the Royal Opera House. Yeah, because that's where they normally play number one and we have the actual Royal Opera House and he's talking about how they're inspired by the Frankincense tree. This song is inspired by the Frankincense tree. All right. Yeah. Let's get going. Let's get to it in just a minute when they start playing. And around here we see... Let me just wait for them to reduce. Okay, yeah it's gonna start. So this is a traditional instrument. Yes. This is a traditional guitar. As we all know... Can you hear me? Our late majesty was a huge fan of classical music and a private orchestra. He had his own orchestra. So this is why we wanted to highlight one of the beautiful aspects of Oman which is the orchestra as well. And as you can see. They play music from all over the world. Or they play a lot of traditional Omani music also. I don't know, they play traditional Omani music. But his late majesty used to enjoy travelling with them when it was necessary. Okay, so... And opera is amazing to be in. It's beautiful. The Royal Opera House is very beautiful. It's stunning. It's one of the greatest works of Oman. And we obviously had the first Royal Opera House in the whole of the GCC. Seatings hopefully for... Yeah. Alright, let's have a look here. Now we are approaching Zone C which is the Frankincense Hall. The Crystal Hall. And the ceiling as you can see has images. I mean it has shapes of the Frankincense. Not entirely but it symbolizes the Frankincense. And each screen shows you more projects that have won awards. That are also sustainable and eco-friendly. For example, this one is about a rare earth element that Dr. Fatima has created. For beauty and for all other types of products. That's crucial if this can be developed in a massive way that could help the environment a lot. Alright, let's go around. I'll go straight to that one. Over here we get an idea. And we get to show everyone how the Frankincense is used. Not just for burning purposes, not for spiritual purposes. But it can be used in art as well. And they use it as a varnish for the canvas. And also for perfumed experiences. Okay, let's go around. Okay, so we are approaching Zone D which is the route to the trade tunnel. And this area is very special to the country. Because it's in the World Heritage List under UNESCO. And this is where the first trading began of the Frankincense. It's over thousands of years that these have been used. This is exactly where they started trading. And they've preserved it all these years. And this is Zone D and this is about logistics. And their plan on, I mean Oman is known for having the fastest logistics hub. So this is a shuttle that is trying to be created where it's a moving shuttle that can deliver and transport people. It's a slow moving shuttle. And also they're creating delivery trucks, self-driving trucks, that are sustainable and safe for delivery as well. And there might be some partnerships with all kinds of companies in the world, right? It could be Tesla potentially or... And this is also by a governmental company called Asiad. It's very famous for its beautiful work that it's done. As we're approaching the next zone, which is logistics still, and this also shows you how Asiad has boomed the connectivity towards the world of trading and how they have high-tech means of information to share underwater. Because in Oman you have important ports. Exactly, we have the port because we're on the coast. So this makes it easy for transportation, for logistics, for trade in all the parts of the Gulf and also outside. And it's also one of the fastest logistics. Here comes the Danish boat. Oh, that's Danish. Nice, I had no idea. And it shows, it also gives you an idea of how we have dolphins. We have 20 different species of whales and dolphins in Oman. It's also important to keep the dolphins and not fish them. And to have what's called rules for the fishermen that they don't use the nets to capture them and stuff. They don't. They really preserve the dolphins and the whales a lot because it also attracts tourism in all kinds of ways. As you can see, it has access to two billion consumers. All right. Thank you. Laura, the phone in the crystal side is recording. The phone here is out. Which one? Here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, now, what did you say? Maybe we can cut it. Let's start from here. Okay, all right. As we are approaching now, which is the last floor, zone E is the future of Oman and also the future of Frankincense. On the walls, we have images of the country from all parts of the country, and these were taken just for expo. So we get an idea of how the country looks from the mosques to the animals, to the sunsets, to the trees, and how cold it gets in the mountains. Sometimes we experience some snow. How often do you get the snow? Just during periods of January. Yeah, just at the tip of the mountains, when it's very cold. It's a very big pavilion, actually, right? Is it? Yeah, it's several floors. Just two floors. It's big. It's bigger inside than it looks outside. Exactly. That's the beauty of the design, actually. They designed it in the sense that when you enter, all you have to do is you keep going around and you exit at the last floor. So welcome to the future of Oman. As you enter the space, you're welcomed by screens and images of each and everyone that participated in creating this beautiful pavilion. We have the two designers, the tech team, the engineers, multimedia developers. So that's one of the young designers that designed the conceptual design. This pavilion is a multi-year project, right? It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of work from a lot of people. Yes, it did. And obviously with how COVID came through, it was stopped for a bit, but they completed it. And you're welcomed by this robotic farm that will be here for the next six months. And we're going to be planting seeds of the frankincense in order to see how long it will take to grow without the light outside, without sunlight, but with the UV lights. And there's water coming from underneath. There's tubes that are connected from the bottom and they will pump the water up. And this is a way to also experiment on how, if there's a future in Mars, how they can take the robotic farm into the spaceship for the astronauts to experience and also to be able to plant it in Mars. As we know that frankincense is very beneficial to the health. It's good for the immune system. It destroys bacteria, pathogens, fungi, viruses. And the space that you are in is also a space to give the visitors a sense of relaxation. These are images of the tree from the seeds. This is the seeds. And all the way to the stems, the branches and the leaves. And until the last result, which is the raisin, it's a gooey texture type. And that is the outcome. So the whole pavilion is dedicated to the frankincense tree. Just the first and last. As you can see the ground and the last. The first floor is all about sustainability and the projects. So this is just to create a green space. It's not real. So we try to give the visitors an experience as they're leaving to have a scent of the frankincense and all the different types of the frankincense. And here we have pure frankincense where the visitors come and stand around this hub and smell the frankincense with the sound in the background. And it's meant to help them relax. And on the ceiling we have frankincense crystallized and the middle vacuum to recycle the scent. Over here we have holograms. These are 3D that show you how the frankincense looks and the tree and the element that we use to burn it. And the object that we use to burn it. So you can cut that. So each of these have a smell basically. So that one has lemon, frankincense with lemon. And this is frankincense with roses. Do you want me to cover that? Or we already did that. So over here we have frankincense with diffused lemon and it has a very light but a type of punch to it because of the lemon. So the visitors are able to experience the smell of it. And the last but not least is frankincense with rose. So the visitors can stand and feel a vibration under their feet with the sound in the background and it helps them relax. And just before they leave the pavilion they're relaxed and ready to go to the next pavilion. It's one of the most important things is to manage to not have stress. Relax and enjoy life slowly. Yes, it helps you to relax and enjoy and also leave with a lovely scent and a lovely smell. And towards the end of the pavilion we have these images that you are able to have an idea basically all the information that you were seeing from the ground floor all the way to the last floor in detail. It talks about all the projects and everything about the pavilion. So now we have a shop. Do you want to go to the shop? Do you want to take the stairs? So we're going down to the boutique and to the restaurant. Yes, they are. So Oman has a vision of going to Mars? They do. They have a vision to go to Mars to launch in Mars and try to plant the tree since it grows in really difficult climate. They're hoping that this will also help and we could have a future there one day. Fingers crossed. I'm guessing maybe the youth and Oman also dreams to be astronauts? Yes, they're very encouraged and the youth right now is very much encouraged by doing so much change especially after COVID came through. Everyone was able to think of what they would like to do and how to change the situation of planet Earth and how to better it. You have a passport? Yes. He'll come back. You want to do it now? Oh, nice. That's what it looks like. So as the visitors are leaving? Are every people welcome to Oman to travel? Yes, they are. Oman is open to everyone. So a visa on arrival? No, for certain countries there's a visa on arrival but for others you have to go through your embassy or you can get it online as well. So here we have the shop. Actually, I didn't mention this invest. So we don't only allow guests to just come and visit the pavilion but we also give people a chance to invest in the country if they have any opportunities that they would like to study in the country. There's all sorts of information for everyone. People can also study in Oman. You can also study in Oman. From any country? From any country. In English? In English or in Arabic there's universities for both. So this is the investment office so we can encourage more business partners and relationships. And here we have the shop where we get to showcase our tradition and culture and this is the Omani, one of the Omani attires. Okay. And here we are welcomed by all sorts of fragrances and frankincense. I will show you a bit of the frankincense. This is how it looks. This very nice smell here. From the perfumes that are around. And each and every product that is in here has been made by an Omani. So it's all local made and all the benefits are going back to the locals as well. So we have chocolate that is made from Omani and perfume and mist. It would be a typical or recommended Omani perfume that people should definitely think about. There's so much. There is so much but there's a famous brand that everyone knows about and it's called Amouage. And I'm sure everyone is familiar with it. Where is it? Oh here. Okay. So everyone that knows of Omani knows of this perfume or might know of the perfume but not know that it's from Omani. So this is a must-have. It smells really good. They have unisex products and female and also male products and they all have like the frankincense and also the incense infused in it. And we have different oils as well that have frankincense as well and others that don't have. And here you have different examples of the jewelry that is worn in Omani by Omani's and this is all locally made. In Arabic? I don't know. In Arabic as well. Okay sorry. The hedge cross we have in Hina as well. Where's the Hina? Over there. Okay. In Hila, in Hina. All right. So we also have the Hina here which Omani is really famous for its Hina and we have Hina. If you're familiar with Hina are you familiar with Hina? It's drawn on the palm of your hand or the surface of your hand and it's like a decorative, you know. And it stays for a few days? It stays for a few days and as you wash it off as you wash it off it comes off. All right. Yeah. And we also have handcrafted products behind you. This is jewelry and this is called a hunter which the male wear around their waist. Not everybody wears it, right? No, no, just on special occasions. All right. Traditional. Yeah, traditional wear. And this is what we use to burn the frankincense. So you get a coal. You light up the coal and you put it inside and then you place the frankincense on top and then you move around the house or if you want it on your clothing you just kind of push it towards you, the fume and that's it. And people can grab a bag that says I love Omani. Okay. And go around the expo. Yes. All right. And this is the way out? This is your way out and before you leave there's a tourism hub and anyone that is trying to travel gets any sort of information about Oman. Yeah, about Oman or if they want to get any visas or any type of information about the country you're able to come here. How are you? How are you? Okay. So this is Oman Air with 50 destinations. It's a lot. Yeah. Coming direct flights from Europe. From Europe? Yes. Europe we have a microphone. Maybe you can grab the microphone. Be careful. Don't take it off. So it doesn't damage your scarf. Yeah. Okay. Maybe you can put it right here. It's fine? Yeah. And this is in the pocket. This one? Yeah. All right. Do you want to introduce yourself? Okay. Okay. Can I hear you some? Can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay. One second. Do you want to take it off? Okay. I can take it off. No. Thank you. That's better. We are operating to 51-52 destinations at the moment. Some of the destinations are not resumed yet after the pandemic. But yes, we do have flights to Europe, Far East, Indian subcontinent and some destinations in GCC and Middle East. Is Oman kind of like a hub for people to travel from Europe and then further away a little bit, like what Dubai does and Doha, or is it the end destination is to come to Oman, most of the flights. Most of the flights, like we do have a flight to London, Munich, Zürich, Paris, Milan. These are the destinations we have. We are in Europe. And if someone wants to come to Dubai, yes, our hub is in Moscow. The flight will be transit flights through Damascus. So it's just like a couple of hours stop over in Damascus. And our most of the operation for Europe is with the Dreamliners, which is one of the very good product in the aviation industry. Very comfortable. Very smooth flights. And we have a complete flat, but 180 degrees in a business class. And we have won several awards for the business class and economy class. All right. And also maybe it's a very popular for Omanis to go around the world. So take the flight everywhere. Exactly. Yes. And especially in the summer, when they want to get maybe some little bit cooler temperatures and they might want to go to Scandinavia or something. Scandinavian countries, yes. Omania doesn't have a flight to Scandinavian countries or the Atlantic Pacific. We haven't started yet. But yes, we do have a co-chair partners with like a QR and Turkish airline and some other European airlines. We do have a partnership with them. So it's just like, you know, means if someone wants to go to, let's say, Moscow to some Scandinavian countries, they can go to Moscow to Zurich or Germany with Omania, like a Frankfurt. And then they can take a, then they can take a Lufthansa from there. Like as I said, you know, we do have a co-chair partners with Omania. And are there affordable economy deals? People can book. Omania normally fares are very, very competitive. And yes, means the fares are always good. Means you will see Omania is always in line with the competition.