Oman has self-consciously distanced itself physically from Dubai and Doha, eschewing glass skyscrapers in favor of low buildings in traditional architectural styles with strict limitations on building height and exterior color schemes. Its beaches and rugged mountainscapes are routinely described as virgin, exotic and undiscovered. In 2013, 2.1 million tourists visited the country, an increase of 50% in only two years. The state invested $660 million in tourism-related endeavors that year. The enormous boom in tourism comes on the heels of serious uprisings that began in 2011. The demands were for jobs, social justice and an end to corruption. The tourist opening also coincides with the first succession in Oman since 1970 when Sultan Qaboos ousted his father. It is a time of extraordinary uncertainty in the country. There are currently proposals to ban alcohol and to gender-segregate education. Social and political struggles will play out in the tourist experience. The complexity of Oman’s tourist landscape – state interests, transnational tour companies, local communities – requires a new analysis that moves away from traditional analytical frameworks. This analysis is derived from two research trips to Oman in 2014 and 2015 that include visits to tourist sites, extensive interviews with Omanis in the tourist industry as consumers and/or producers, as well as secondary reading. I highlight change in social identities, the marketing of sustainability amid environmental damage, and the displacement of fishing villages. “Trickle down benefits” of tourism are an empirical question to investigate. The tourist opening is destroying and transforming social identities in the fishing villages that are being usurped; re-producing socio-economic hierarchies among the elites that enjoy the new industry, and is part and parcel of the struggle over Oman’s future. I examine three types of tourist experience: cruise ships, “Integrated Luxury Communities (ITCs)” and new five star resorts. Luxury cruise ship tourism skyrocketed beyond all predictions – from 3,500 tourists in 2003 to more than 300,000 in 2013 when 134 luxury behemoths dominated the harbors of Oman. Tourists descend into Souq Muttrah before re-boarding the ship. ITC’s are gated luxury communities where foreigners can own property. These are “home away from home” for GCC citizens who comprise 37% of tourists. Finally, new five star resorts dot the rugged landscape of Oman perched high atop mountains overlooking the blue waters. They are spatially isolated from the city and are self-contained living experiences.