THE OUTCOME

A reimagined open theatre experience for guests and tourists that rebranded the locality of the place at sawadi beach, Oman.

The newly designed development was looking to revive the quiet but iconic beach site and promote the place as a destination so that people can visit and love the area from early on before the actual development comes to life.

We performed ethnographic research with the residents of the existing local village, interviewed the families, understood their everyday life and culture. We created the profiles of all interested parties in the area, including the local authorities so that we unveil their real needs. We understood well the profile of the interested visitor, the target audience. Following our process, we created a number of design concepts and strategies for building an experience that rewards curiosity and sparks artistic and literary exploration. We prototyped a selection of them and upon testing them we saw a high correlation between visitors’ positive reactions and subsequent visiting intentions even before the project was materialized.

The final choice was to develop an open theatre approach towards destination marketing that would portray a new, effective identity. The graphic language had to be inviting, place focused and flexible. It should communicate its virtues: The love for Oman, the respect for the culture, the connection between the place and its surroundings. In order to communicate that the location is actually a part of the broader landscape we set up a virtual moving theatre that offers activities for its visitors, events, festivals, open cinema, that takes place for a number of months throughout the year. We connected the activities with background images of the various unique natural landscapes of Oman and made them part of the overall identity. Onsite outlets will be forming part of the same identity.
The village would become then a core player with the visitors, exhibiting its culture through new products, sales techniques, local folklore and festival and would blend its authenticity with the moments of the visitors to offer a real Omani experience.

THE OUTCOME

A reimagined open theatre experience for guests and tourists that rebranded the locality of the place at sawadi beach, Oman.

The newly designed development was looking to revive the quiet but iconic beach site and promote the place as a destination so that people can visit and love the area from early on before the actual development comes to life.

We performed ethnographic research with the residents of the existing local village, interviewed the families, understood their everyday life and culture. We created the profiles of all interested parties in the area, including the local authorities so that we unveil their real needs. We understood well the profile of the interested visitor, the target audience. Following our process, we created a number of design concepts and strategies for building an experience that rewards curiosity and sparks artistic and literary exploration. We prototyped a selection of them and upon testing them we saw a high correlation between visitors’ positive reactions and subsequent visiting intentions even before the project was materialized.

The final choice was to develop an open theatre approach towards destination marketing that would portray a new, effective identity. The graphic language had to be inviting, place focused and flexible. It should communicate its virtues: The love for Oman, the respect for the culture, the connection between the place and its surroundings. In order to communicate that the location is actually a part of the broader landscape we set up a virtual moving theatre that offers activities for its visitors, events, festivals, open cinema, that takes place for a number of months throughout the year. We connected the activities with background images of the various unique natural landscapes of Oman and made them part of the overall identity. Onsite outlets will be forming part of the same identity.
The village would become then a core player with the visitors, exhibiting its culture through new products, sales techniques, local folklore and festival and would blend its authenticity with the moments of the visitors to offer a real Omani experience.