The inbound tourists to Oman spent, on an average, only 7.2 nights in Oman in 2016 compared with 22.1 nights spent by outbound tourists, the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) said in its latest report.
Expenses of inbound tourists include air tickets, accommodation, food and beverages, internal transport, and shopping.
Five-star hotels, at 43.2 per cent, contributed the maximum to tourism from 15 hotels, followed by
four-star (26.6 per cent) from 27 hotels, three-star hotels (12.8 per cent) from 26 hotels, and two stars (9.4 per cent) from 77 hotels.
The report says the average room occupancy in Oman is 47.4 per cent, topped by Muscat at 55.5 per cent, Musandam 47.9 per cent and Dhofar 50.7 per cent.
The five-star hotels across Oman have an average rate occupancy of 57.2 per cent, four-star hotels 57.5 per cent, three-star hotels 58.7 per cent and two-star hotels 40.5 per cent.
At the same time, statistics on air travel reveal that passenger arrivals (5.8 million) at the Muscat airport marginally exceeded the departures (5.7 million) for 2016.
It may be noted only 27,638 passengers used Muscat airport for transit despite the growing networks of two national airlines.
The availability of e-visas to more nationalities in the coming days and the opening of new airport will change the trend as it will help bring more tourists to Oman on short-stay trips while on transit.
Meanwhile, it may be noted the passenger traffic between the Middle East and North America was already slowing in early 2017, in line with a moderation in the pace of growth of the largest carriers in the region, said IATA in its report.
Vinod Nair
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