Haider Al Lawati - haiderdawood@hotmail.com - Despite the strenuous efforts exerted by the concerned authorities to attract more foreign tourists to the country, domestic tourism has tripled compared with the number of foreign tourists visiting the Sultanate, according to official data.
Statistics issued by the National Center for Statistics and Information show that tourism in the Sultanate raked in RO 1.2 billion ($3.12 billion) by the end of 2016, of which RO 882.5 million came from domestic tourism at 73.5 per cent. Inbound tourism, ranked second, brought in RO 319 million at 26.5 per cent.
The cost of domestic tourism is high in terms of accommodation in hotels and hotel apartments, airfares and other expenses borne by tourists compared with the neighbouring countries who are also seeking to attract more tourists to.
At the same time, Omani and the resident tourists play a significant role in promoting internal tourism trends, especially during official holidays and weekends.
It is now normal to see many families and groups visiting various governorates and wilayats across Oman after being used to travelling abroad for the same purpose.
According to statistics, domestic tourism in the Sultanate has become the primary source of tourism, including prices of airfares from local airlines, travel agencies and tourism companies.
Statistics also show the share of Oman Air and travel agencies from domestic tourism exceeded RO 728.7 million, 60 per cent more than the previous year, while direct added value amounted to RO 701.4 million during the same period, a slight decrease from 2015.
This increase has been attributed to air transport activity, which has seen a remarkable increase in the added value by 110 per cent in the past years as of 2011.
Moreover, the direct added value to the cultural services sector has doubled, which requires more focus on both air transport and cultural services sectors especially since the Sultanate is blessed with all the tourism, cultural and other components that are lacking in many countries in the region.
By tracking foreign tourism records, it can be concluded the number of visitors from the GCC countries tops the list of arrivals and by 49.6 per cent. This requires further promotion and development of programmes to attract more tourists from the GCC, both citizens and residents.
Visitors from Asian countries come in second by 20.7 per cent, followed by Europe with 18.5 per cent, Arab countries with 5.9 per cent and other countries 5.4 per cent, mostly from the Americas and Oceania.
Overnight stays by tourists in Oman constituted 16.5 million nights in 2016, an average of seven nights per tourist, according to statistics.
Accordingly, tourism agencies are developing more programmes to attract new tourist groups to the Sultanate, while airlines, travel and tourism companies are boosting these trends by organising meetings with travel and tourism agents.
This is what airlines do to enhance the market share of arrivals whether on Oman Air, Salam Air or others. Furthermore, the role of travel and tourism agents is vital, complementing that of local tourism companies in terms of developing exciting programmes for foreign tourists and filling the supplied seating capacity on local carriers, which requires non-stop promotion and marketing of these companies to attract a higher number of arrivals for tourism and recreation.
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