Hotel revenue grows by 12.2 pc

MUSCAT, JULY 10 - Hotels in the three-to-five-star category in the Sultanate registered a significant rise till the end of April this year. According to figures released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the revenue reached RO 95.4 million during the period with a 12.2 rise compared to RO 85.1 million during the corresponding period last year. However, hotel occupancy rates fell by 2.3 per cent to reach 67.1 per cent at the end of April 2019 against 68.6 per cent for the same period of 2018.

According to the latest statistics, the total number of guests in Omani hotels showed a substantial increase by 20 per cent in the four-month period of 2019, reaching 683,150 from 569,383 guests for the same period of 2018. Among the nationalities, Europeans constituted the maximum number of visitors, reaching 307,840. This was followed by 165,032 Omani guests and 73,786 Asian tourists till the end of April 2019 period, the data released by NCSI revealed.

There was a rise in the number of American guests and other Arab guests by 4.7 per cent and 12.4 per cent to reach 23,192 and 26,123, respectively.

However, there was a drop in the number of GCC, African and Oceanian guests by 0.2 per cent, 6.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent to reach 58,742; 4,271 and 6,302 guests, respectively. Omani hotels received 1.49 million guests and the hotels generated a total revenue of RO 214.1 million in 2018.