Their goal is simple: to empower every person in Muscat by providing the information they need through a platform that smartly combines Facebook, Blogspot, Travel Advisor and Classifieds.
With a click of a button when you browse the website or go through the app, one will easily find information about destinations in Oman, what best hotels, restaurants and attractions to visit and experience, what are the current job openings all over Oman including what vehicles and properties are currently being sold.
“We launched the Muscateer app and site a few months back and at the core of what we do, we wanted to help by making information readily available to travellers and residents of Muscat,” shared Muscateer.om founder Nidhin Madhav.
About two weeks ago, Nidhin and his team in coordination with Mufeedha Ubaidh, a local food and travel blogger coordinated with Kargeen Restaurant to conduct a blogger’s forum and to demonstrate how the app works and what advantages it offers to the users.
“One is required to register and create an account. As a user-content driven platform, all the uploads are curated by our team and everyone is made to conform to the site policies and standards. It is our way of making sure that the information provided and the reviews given are reliable and correct,” Nidhin shared.
“You can really call it a one-stop-shop. Through our classifieds section, we connect buyers and sellers. The job segment help job seekers find companies that are looking for candidates and vice versa, the reviews and recommendations section list down top hotels, restaurants, attractions and things to do in Muscat. The membership and app download is also for free,” he added.
“We also have a section for events. In this day and age, knowing what’s happening in Muscat is important to a lot of people. The forums section allow people to interact with each other and offer advises and information,” he said.
For the bloggers in attendance, it’s another option to widen their reach outside of their personal social media accounts.
“Blogging has grown massively in recent years and the rise of social media has also given rise to the influencers. When we came up with the idea for the Muscateer Blog, we envisioned a site that could document the experience of what it was like to live in Oman and then share this experience and content to an even wider audience,” Nidhin said.
For most of the bloggers, they believe that there is a lot of information available but they are spread all over the internet and no one site curates and collect the information for Muscat.
“As people explore Muscat and Oman, we realise that the country had lots of things to offer — from things to do to people to meet, to places to see. It is from personal experiences of those who had done things and been to places that we want others to be inspired by the same experience and make their own trips memorable,” he said.
While the content is driven by people in Muscat and Oman in general, the information available can be used by other travellers from all over the world considering to visit Muscat. In a way, this is supporting the efforts being made by the Ministry of Tourism becoming an unofficial partner in spreading words about Oman as a country worthy to be visited.
“Oman is a big country. It is a great country. Our team tries to capture the best of what’s happening in the city but we can’t be everywhere. This is why this is a partnership. We also rely on members to provide the content. With more people making recommendations and update, the more it will be helpful and useful to hundreds of others. We hope it to be a powerful ally and the go-to site for many people in Oman when they visit Muscat,” he said.
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