Salalah: The number of visitors to the Salalah Tourism Festival at the end of the sixth week (from June 21 till August 1) reached 444,700 visitors to comprise an increase by 47.1 per cent, compared to the same period in 2017, which was 302,296. The number of visitors increased by 16.9 per cent to 143,892, compared to 123,080 visitors during the fifth week of the current season, according to the latest statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). NCSI statistics showed that the number of visitors who arrived by land during the end of the sixth week increased by 81 per cent to 360,379 visitors, which comprised a rise by 58.7 per cent, compared to 227,114 visitors during the same period of 2017.
The number also showed an increase of 18.5 per cent to 122,073 from 102,979 visitors in the fifth week of the current season. A total of 84,321 visitors reached the Governorate of Dhofar by air, an increase of 12.2 per cent over the same period in 2017, which was registered at 75,182 visitors. The number of visitors by air increased by 8.5 per cent, compared to the fifth week of the current season, with the number of arrivals on domestic flights increasing from 14,762 visitors in the fifth week to 16,339 visitors in the sixth week. The number of visitors arriving by international flights reached 5,480 in the sixth week, compared to 5,339 in the fifth week.
The tourists from Gulf region, including the Omanis, accounted for 93.5 per cent of the total visitors to the Salalah Tourism Festival during the sixth week, reaching 415,578 visitors, compared to 266,865 visitors during the same period of 2017, which is a rise of 55.7 per cent, followed by 15,933 visitors of Asian nationalities, down from 24,739 visitors during the same period, which is a decrease of 35.6 per cent. Of the total number of visitors, 10,563 were from other Arab countries, 1,642 from European countries and 984 were from other countries. The statistics showed that 81.8 per cent, or 117,713 visitors, during the sixth week were residents of the Sultanate and 26,179 were non-residents. — ONA
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