Dhofar enters the most important month of its tourism year today.
August alone accounted for 585,155 visitors during the 2025 Khareef season — 54.6 per cent of the season’s estimated total of about 1.07 million.
The figure illustrates the scale of the opportunity facing hotels, restaurants, retailers, transport operators and small businesses. It also exposes the commercial risk of depending so heavily on a single month.
By the end of July last year, Dhofar had received 442,100 visitors since the season began on June 21. The total rose to 1,027,255 by the end of August, meaning more visitors arrived during August than in all the preceding 41 days combined.
Only 43,483 additional visitors were recorded between September 1 and 21, despite the official season continuing and much of the governorate remaining green.
July and August together accounted for 94 per cent of all visitors during the 2025 season.
The National Centre for Statistics and Information had not released preliminary visitor figures for the 2026 Khareef by press time. But last year’s pattern shows why August matters more to Dhofar’s tourism businesses than the headline season total alone.
Thirty-one days of demand
A concentrated peak creates an unusual business model.
Hotels and furnished apartments must prepare enough rooms and staff for the busiest weeks. Restaurants purchase additional stock and expand shifts. Rental companies add vehicles, while seasonal outlets commit money to rents, permits, equipment and temporary workers.
Businesses that prepare only for average demand risk losing customers during the peak. Those that invest enough to handle August may be left with underused staff, premises and vehicles when demand falls in September.
The problem is therefore not a shortage of visitors. It is that the visitors arrive within an unusually narrow window.
Ahmed bin Salim al Mahri, Chief Executive of Gloria Tourism, said Dhofar could expand its tourism services and events, but development should not weaken the characteristics that draw visitors to the governorate.
“Services can be developed and new events added, but local culture and nature must stay a genuine part of the experience, not just a backdrop for commercial projects,” he said.
The challenge for tourism planners is to increase the economic return from the season without turning its natural and cultural assets into an overdeveloped commercial product.
Spending follows the peak
Visitor expenditure during the 2025 Khareef was estimated at RO 124.64 million.
Accommodation accounted for the largest share at RO 49.24 million, followed by food and beverages at RO 28.51 million. Travel tickets accounted for RO 19.22 million, while shopping, entertainment and other services generated an estimated RO 27.67 million.
These businesses sell capacity that cannot be stored.
A hotel room left empty in September cannot be transferred to August. Neither can an unused restaurant table, rental vehicle, airline seat or tour departure.
The heavy concentration of visitors therefore affects not only total revenue but also how efficiently tourism investments are used.
Official tourism indicators show that occupancy at three- to five-star hotels in Dhofar stood at 49.3 per cent during September 2025. Less than half of the available classified hotel capacity was occupied on average during the closing month of the Khareef.
That does not mean September lacks a market. It indicates that substantial capacity remains available once the main family-travel period ends.
The economic gain from extending the season would not necessarily require another record visitor total. Moving part of the existing demand from August into late June and September could improve occupancy, reduce congestion and allow businesses to use their staff and assets for longer.
The calendar shapes the market
The nationality profile helps explain why the peak is difficult to move.
Omanis represented 70.7 per cent of visitors during the 2025 season. Visitors from other GCC countries accounted for a further 17.3 per cent.
Nearly nine out of every 10 visitors therefore came from nearby markets in which family travel is closely linked to school holidays.
This makes the Khareef a predominantly regional, family-driven tourism season. Weather may remain attractive into September, but many families must return before the beginning of the school year.
The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has previously acknowledged that visitor movement weakens at the beginning and end of the season because the Khareef weather is not fully established in June and schools reopen towards the end.
The ministry has sought to support those quieter periods through adventure tourism, sporting events, conferences and specialised exhibitions.
The policy question is whether these activities are changing travel dates or primarily adding more events for visitors who would have travelled during the peak anyway.
A useful measure would be the proportion of visitors arriving outside July and August. That would show whether the commercial season is actually becoming longer.
Flights reinforce established demand
Airline schedules also remain concentrated around the established peak.
Oman Air’s additional seasonal operations on the Muscat-Salalah route run from early July until September 5, while SalamAir’s additional operations continue until August 31.
The flights provide essential capacity during the busiest weeks, but their operating periods largely follow existing demand rather than creating a significant new travel window in late June or September.
Air transport also serves a minority of Khareef visitors.
Almost three-quarters of visitors in 2025 arrived by road, making the school calendar, family holiday plans and conditions on long-distance routes at least as important as airline capacity.
This is why adding flights alone cannot substantially extend the season.
Visitor numbers are only one measure
The estimated RO 124.64 million represents visitor expenditure, not the amount ultimately retained by businesses and workers in Dhofar.
Part of the spending on tickets, imported products, national retail companies and online platforms will flow outside the governorate. A detailed governorate-level measure of locally retained tourism value was not available in the material reviewed for this report.
That question is separate from the immediate issue of seasonality, but it matters when judging the broader economic impact of Khareef.
Higher visitor numbers do not automatically mean that every tourism business earns more, that investment is being used efficiently or that benefits are distributed evenly across the governorate.
For businesses, the quality of demand matters alongside its volume: how long visitors stay, when they arrive, where they travel and what they purchase locally.
Dhofar has demonstrated that it can attract more than one million visitors during Khareef.
As August begins, the more difficult test is whether the governorate can turn a powerful one-month peak into a stronger three-month tourism economy.
KHAREEF 2025 IN NUMBERS
Total visitors: About 1.07 million
Visitors during August: 585,155
August share: 54.6 per cent
July and August share: 94 per cent
September 1-21 visitors: 43,483
Estimated expenditure: RO 124.64 million
Accommodation expenditure: RO 49.24 million
Food and beverages: RO 28.51 million
Arriving by road: 73.3 per cent
Omani and GCC share: 88 per cent
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