Muscat: Around 1.1 billion tourists traveled internationally in the first nine months of 2024, as the global tourism sector recovered 98 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
According to the latest Tourism Barometer by UN Tourism, a full recovery from the biggest crisis in the sector’s history is expected by the end of the year, despite economic, geopolitical, and climate challenges.
Four years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought global tourism to a standstill, the Barometer reflects the sector’s remarkable recovery, with most regions already exceeding 2019 arrival numbers in the period January to September 2024.
The also shows outstanding results in terms of international tourism receipts, with most destinations with available data posting double-digit growth compared to 2019.
UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “The strong growth seen in tourism receipts is excellent news for economies around the world. The fact that visitor spending is growing even stronger than arrivals has a direct impact on millions of jobs and small businesses and contributes decisively to the balance of payments and tax revenues of many economies.”
The Middle East (+29 percent compared to 2019) continued to enjoy record growth this nine months.
Meanwhile, 3.2 million visitors arrived in the country in the ten months of this year of which 1,007,398, 507,839 Indians, 188,891 Yemenis, 99,144 Saudis, and 99,038 Germans.
The hotels reported 47.2 percent occupancy with 1,717,512 guests (2,2417,622 nights), which generated RO186.1 million in revenues.
The three to five-star hotels also employed 3,479 Omanis, a growth of two percent.
In October, hotels in Muscat had an occupancy of 59.8 percent, Al Wusta 49.1 percent, Musandam 51.2 percent, and North al Batinah 74.9 percent among others.
The number of international passengers at Muscat Airport increased by 3.5 percent to 9,716, 134 in the ten months of 2024 compared to 9,388, 957 in 2023 during the same period. There was an increase of 2.1 percent in the number of flights operating at the airport.
However, sources in the tourism ministry as well as in the industry have confirmed that the sector in the Middle East is affected due to the political conflicts in the region. The
with tour operators have reported cancellations of hotel bookings from Western travelers at a time when hotels generally have high occupancies and make up for the lean summer months.
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