Aiming at diversifying its economy, the Sultanate opened its gates to selective tourism in the late 1980s. Up until 1970, Oman had cut itself off completely from the outside world and very little was known about the country and its people. Although Muscat had frequently been visited by trading ships, few people had ever ventured into Oman’s interior. Travel accounts of explorers like Wilfried Thesiger in the 1940s, who was the first European to ever travel through the Rul al-Khali, differ little