With its vast coastline and clear skies, the Sultanate of Oman is naturally poised to take advantage of the global tourism sector recovery, with sun and beach destinations proving the most resilient, reaching a 30-per cent recovery in 2022 as compared with 2019 levels.
“This is reflected in the impressive performance of many destinations in Central America, the Caribbean, and Southern Europe, as well as tropical-island destinations in the Asia Pacific (Maldives, Fiji),” said ForwardKeys in its latest report.
Speaking to the Observer, Graham Cooke, founder and president of the World Travel Awards, said, “It is great to see how fast the Sultanate of Oman has recovered and new investments coming into the tourism sector, including some wonderful properties that opened this year.”
He added that urban trips are also making a comeback. In fact, the recovery of urban destinations is catching up with that of sun and beach destinations, and by December, the two will be nearly level as demand for sun and beach holidays slows during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months.
“This trend reflects a wider pattern that has seen alternative destinations growing in popularity – particularly in Europe – as travel reactivation continues.”
Travel recovery in 2022, while generally encouraging, has been affected by challenges, including escalating geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a global energy crisis and soaring inflation in most of the world’s major economies. Unfortunately, these issues, and the uncertainty they breed in the travel market, look set to continue into 2023.
“Leading the recovery of business travel are the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where, at several points this year, business recovery has far outperformed that of leisure.
This trend is set to accelerate in the fourth quarter, reaching its peak in December,” the report said.
The strong performance of these destinations is consistent with the recovery of sun and beach travel in the wider region, which, in the second half of 2022, almost reached full recovery, standing at -9 per cent as compared with the same period in 2019.
@vinot_nair
