Muscat: Salalah Airport received the first of the charter flights from Hungary carrying 189 tourists on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT), there will be a series of weekly direct flights until the end of the current winter season, which has been organized in coordination with tourism sector partners to promote the Sultanate of Oman in global markets.
Around 400 charter flights will make trips to Dhofar during this winter season.
Integrated promotional strategy with all stakeholders helped the Dhofar Governorate to attract nearly a million tourists during the 2023 Khareef season.
The number of visitors to the Dhofar Khareef 2023 season recorded an increase of 18.4 percent to reach about 962,000, compared to 813,000 visitors in 2022.
According to the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI), there has been an increase in spending by visitors to the Dhofar Khareef 2023 season to RO103 million, compared to RO86 million in the 2022 season, while the number of nights of stay for visitors increased to 7 million nights, compared to 6 million nights in the 2022 season. The data showed that the number of Omani visitors was 666,307 visitors, 69.2 percent of the total visitors, while the number from the GCC countries was 190,853, 19.8 percent of the total visitors, and 68,100 visitors from Asian countries.
The number of visitors from Arab countries was 31,214, followed by 3,740 visitors from Europe, and 1,982 visitors from other countries. Spending on housing increased by 19.4 percent during this year compared to the 2022 season to RO33,68,567, accounting for 32.2 percent of total spending, followed by spending on food and drink at RO25,598, 657, accounting for 24.9 percent of the total spending.
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