Sultanate received 984,000 tourists in first 3 months

MUSCAT, May 8 - A slew of measures initiated by the government to boost the number of tourist arrivals seem to be showing good results. The Sultanate received 984,000 tourists till the end of March this year, with GCC nationals (343,192) topping the list, followed by Germans (109,223), Indians (86,360), British (59,474) and Italians (47,701). In its latest report, the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) said that 1.6 million departed from the Sultanate during the same period. A total of 111,000 cruise ship visitors arrived in Muscat till end of March with German nationals (49,284) topping the list, Italians (11,717), British (9,070), Dutch (3,955) and Americans (3,234).

There were a total of 430,000 guests (three to five star hotels) till the month of March with around RO 65 million generated during the same period. A total of 371,000 visitors arrived in Muscat during the month of March, with GCC nationals topping (128,000), forming 34.5 per cent during March. There has been an increase of 24.6 per cent in the number of visitors arriving in the Sultanate during March, from 298,000 compared to the same period a year ago. Omanis formed around 60.7 per cent from a total of 481,000 visitors who went abroad during March. A total of 40,000 tourists in cruise ships arrived in Oman in March, with 88.7 per cent of European visitors and German nationals (54.7) forming majority of them. It may be noted that around 45,947 electronic visas were issued from March 21 to April 16.

Vinod Nair