MUSCAT: The number of visitors to Salalah Tourism Season at the end of the 12th week (June 21 to September 12) reached 820,074 visitors. The arrival of tourists increased by 28.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2017, which was 638,324 visitors.
According to the latest statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the number of visitors fell by 44.3 per cent to 8,152 compared to 14,638 visitors during the 11th week of the season.
NCSI Statistics showed that the number of visitors who arrived by land during the end of the 12th week reached 79.9 per cent to 655,219 visitors, which is a rise of 37.2 per cent compared to 477,393 visitors during the same period of 2017. The number also showed a drop of 62.8 per cent to 3,124 from 8,402 visitors in the 11th week of the season.
A total of 164,855 visitors reached Dhofar Governorate by air, an increase of 2.4 per cent over the same period in 2017, which was registered at 160,931 visitors.
The number of visitors by air dropped by 19.4 per cent compared to the 11th week of the current season, with the number of arrivals on domestic flights decreasing from 4,765 visitors in the 11th week to 3,466 visitors in the 12th week.
The number of visitors arriving by international flights rose by 6.2 per cent to reach 1,562 in the 12th week compared to 1,471 in the previous week.
The tourists from GCC countries, including the Omanis, accounted for 90.8 per cent of the total visitors to the Salalah Tourism Season during the 12th week, reaching 744,737 visitors compared to 572,459 visitors during the same period of 2017, which is a rise of 30.1 per cent.
The number of visitors of Asian nationality reached 47,728, which is an increase of 10 per cent against the same period last year, when it was 43,390 visitors.
Of the total number of visitors, 21,596 were from other Arab countries, 3,805 visitors from European countries, and 2,208 visitors were from other countries.
The statistics showed that 67.8 per cent or 5,531 visitors, during the 12th week were residents of the Sultanate and 2,621 were non-residents. — ONA
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