MUSCAT: There was a 9.3 per cent fall in the number of visitors in the first six weeks of Salalah Tourism Festival, “Monsoon season”. The total number of visitors stood at 301,991 as on August 1, 2017, according to the statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Of the total number of visitors, 72.5 per cent were Omanis and there was an 8.6 per cent fall in the number of Omani visitors compared to last year. The total percentage of visitors from GCC countries excluding Omanis stood at 15.8 per cent of the total visitors. Asians formed 8.2 per cent of the total visitors at the end of sixth week.
Of the total number of visitors, 75.2 per cent came by land and 24.8 per cent by flights, according to the NCSI statistics.
The number of Omani visitors at the end of the sixth week stood at 218,889 this year compared to 239,428 in 2016. There were 47,698 GCC tourists other than Omanis compared to 50,550 during the same period last year.
Visitors from other Arab nations stood at 8,020 compared to 8,229 visitors last year. Visitors from Asian countries declined to 24,720 this year from 32,951 last year while the number of European tourists increased to 1,625 this year from 1,199 last year.
Visitors from other nations also increased this year to 1,039 when it was 740 visitors during the same period last year.
The total number of GCC visitors until August 1, 2017 was 266,587 compared to 289,978 visitors in 2016. Of this, 218,889 were Omanis, 27,064 from United Arab Emirates, 13,596 from Saudi Arabia, 2,286 from Bahrain, 2,420 from Kuwait and 2,332 from Qatar.
The tourists to Salalah Tourism Festival from other Arab nations stood at 8,020 this year compared to 8,229 visitors last year. Of this, there were 993 Syrians, 1,646 Egyptians, 571 Jordanians, 314 Lebanese, 82 Tunisians, 315 Iraqis and 4,099 from other nations in the region.
Of the 24,720 visitors from the Asian nations, 13,469 visitors were from India, 5,092 from Pakistan, 686 from the Philippines and 5,473 from other Asian countries, the data showed.
This year at the end of the sixth week there were 1,625 European tourists compared to 1,199 last year. Of this, 631 visitors were from the United Kingdom compared to 515 visitors in 2016. — ONA
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