Oman tourism: Khareef Salalah visitor numbers cross 600,000 mark

Muscat: More than 630,000 people visited Khareef Salalah 2017 this year during the June 21 to September 5 period.
The total number of visitors during the period reached 630,040, up from 616,117 visitors during the same period of 2016, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Of the total number of visitors, Omanis formed 71.8 per cent at the end of the eleventh week of the Salalah Khareef season. 89.9 per cent of the total number of visitors were from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, including Omanis.
Of the total number of visitors during eleventh week, 53 per cent were residents of Oman, compared with 49.5 per cent last year.
There were 566,143 visitors from the GCC until the end of the eleventh week, registering a 1.5 per cent growth, compared with 557,769 visitors until the end of eleventh week of 2016.
The number of Asian visitors also grew by 3.3 per cent to 42,331, till the end of the eleventh week of the season this year, compared with 40,987 visitors during the same period of 2016, data showed. The number of visitors from other Arab nations jumped 13.8 per cent to 15,581, from 13,692 visitors during the same period of 2016.
European visitors until the end of eleventh week of the season touched 3,802 visitors, up from 2,330 visitors during the same period last year.
Visitors from other nations reached 2,183 visitors, rising from 1,339 visitors in 2016.
Of the total number of visitors during eleventh week of the season, 62.4 per cent arrived by land.
There was a 24.8 per cent growth in visitors who arrived by air at 156,620, compared with 125,492 visitors until the end of eleventh week of the 2016 season.
Of this, 114,813 visitors arrived by domestic flights, compared with 80,625 visitors last year, reflecting a growth of 42.4 per cent.
Number of visitors, who arrived by international flights, fell by 6.8 per cent from 44,867 till the end of the eleventh week of the 2016 season to 41,807 visitors during the same period this year.
A total of 473,420 visitors arrived by the land route during the period, compared with 490,625 visitors last year, registering a 3.5 per cent decline, data showed.
Compared with the tenth week of 2017, when the total number of visitors was 21,135, there was a 57.8 per cent growth in the number of visitors during the eleventh week of the 2017 season to 33,344.
The total number of visitors during the eleventh week of 2016 was only 9,808, data showed.