International tourist arrivals in the Sultanate of Oman gathered pace in the recent months following the removal of travel restrictions. This is evident from the manifold rise in the number of foreign guests in various hotels in the country.
According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the number of European visitors alone accounted for a rise of 641.5 per cent in January 2022 against the same month last year.
Figures from the NCSI revealed that there were 26,571 European visitors at the end of January 2022 against 3,584 in January 2021.
At the same time, visitors from the Gulf countries grew by 270.6 per cent with their number reaching 5,548 in January 2022 compared to 1,497 in January 2021.
The Sultanate of Oman has already opened its borders to travellers of all nationalities with no country-specific bans in place.
Unvaccinated travellers must provide proof of medical reasons preventing them from getting vaccinated. Foreigners cannot enter the country without a vaccination certificate or medical exemption.
The monthly statistical bulletin of tourism indicators also showed a significant increase in the total revenues of hotels in the category of 3-5 stars by 91.6 per cent during January 2022 amounting to RO 12.264 million, compared to the same month in 2021.
However, the number of Asian guests fell by 3.2 per cent, from 9,531 guests in January 2021 to 9,223 guests in January 2022.
According to the Hamburg-based research agency Statista, the year-on-year change in the revenue per available room of hotels in Muscat was forecast to be 14.9 per cent in 2024.
“It was expected that the revenue per available room would recover by an increase of 33.9 per cent in 2021 after the ease of the travel restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data said.
The hotel sector in the Sultanate of Oman, like other countries in the world, was impacted greatly by the restrictions on travel and tourism following the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, along with the economic difficulties that took place in the GCC region in that period.
Meanwhile, Trading Economics in a report forecast that tourist arrivals in the Sultanate of Oman are expected to increase steadily over the next few years with 150,000 alone by the end of this quarter.
The econometric models published by the global agency projects the Sultanate of Oman tourist arrivals trend around 250,000 in 2022.
In January 2022, the number of visitors from Oceania reached 733 registering a slight growth of 3.4 per cent compared to the same month last year, and the number of guests from the African continent during the month of January 2022 stood at 698 visitors, a growth rate of 69.6 per cent compared to January 2021.
Meanwhile, the number of guests of other nationalities reached 2,138, registering a growth rate of 36.4 per cent during January 2022 compared to the same month in 2021.
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