Muscat: The tourism sector in the Sultanate of Oman recorded positive performance in 2025, driven by increased investment and the implementation of numerous projects by both the public and private sectors.
The "Tourism Landscape in the Sultanate of Oman" report, issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), indicated that the total number of visitors to the Sultanate reached RO4 million last year.
Inbound tourism expenditure exceeded RO1 billion, with an average stay of 6.5 nights per visitor and an average spend RO256. Additionally, the number of hotel guests saw significant growth, surpassing 5 million in 2025, compared to 3.5 million in 2018.
The report also highlighted the sector's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reviewing tourism statistics since 2018 and examining the sector's role in economic growth, its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), job creation, and the promotion of economic stability.
It noted that investments directed at the tourism sector have positively impacted the various activities associated with the industry. Data indicated that the tourism sector recorded remarkable growth in the number of establishments operating in tourism-related activities; by 2025, these totaled over 24,000 establishments—an increase of more than 40 percent compared to 2020 levels.
The majority of these establishments are concentrated in the Muscat Governorate, which accounted for 43.5 percent of the total, followed by Dhofar Governorate (17.5%) and North al Batinah Governorate (11 %).
The sector employs over 182,000 workers, with the number of Omani employees rising to 32,000 in 2025, up from approximately 28,000 in 2024 and 25,000 in 2023.
The tourism sector has been a key economic target since the Ninth Five-Year Plan (2016–2020). The Tenth Five-Year Plan placed greater emphasis on increasing tourism's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the Eleventh Five-Year Plan focuses on enhancing the sector's competitiveness to boost its contribution to economic growth. Furthermore, "Oman Vision 2040" aims to raise the tourism sector's contribution to GDP to 3.5 percent by 2030 and to 5.3 percent by 2040.
The report also showed that the tourism sector's contribution to GDP (at current prices) rose to RO1.135 billion in 2025, marking a 37.6 percent increase over the 2018 figure of RO825 million. ...benefiting from the growth achieved by various activities linked to the sector, the rise in tourist numbers, and increased investment in the tourism industry.
The report indicated that the direct value added by the tourism sector in 2025 amounted to approximately RO1.107 billion. Of this total, the hotel sector—which has recorded notable growth over the past few years—contributed RO252.1 million.
Travel agency and reservation service activities ranked second with RO242.7 million, followed by restaurants in third place with RO198.8 million, and transportation activities in fourth place with RO196.5 million.
Meanwhile, cultural activities contributed RO18.8 million, and other tourism-related activities contributed RO197.9 million.
Over the past five years, activities linked to the tourism sector have witnessed an increase in investment volume, particularly within the hotel industry.
By the end of last year, the number of hotels had reached approximately 1,475—an increase of more than 1,000 hotels compared to 2018. Hotel revenues rose to RO359 million, up from OMR 259 million in 2018. Although revenues had dropped to RO102 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector began to recover by 2022, with revenues climbing to RO224 million.
This growth continued, reaching RO276 million in 2023 and RO293 million in 2024.
