Oman tourism: Khareef Salalah receives more than 630,000 visitors

Muscat: More than 630,000 tourists visited Khareef Salalah until the end of the festival’s twelfth week.
That was a decline of 0.4 per cent decline compared to same period last year.
The total number of visitors during the period from 21st June to 12th September 2017 reached 638,119 visitors compared to 640,775 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, the Omanis formed 71.5 per cent at the end of the 12th week of Khareef Salalah and 89.7 per cent of the total number of visitors were from the GCC nations including the Sultanate.
Of the total number of visitors during 12th week, 60.4 per cent were residents of the Sultanate compared to 42.8 per cent last year.
There were 572,299 visitors from GCC countries until the end of the 12th week, registering a 0.8 per cent growth compared to 568,035 visitors until the end of the 12th week of 2016. The number of the Asian visitors showed a 15.8 per cent decline to 43,366 visitors until the end of 12th week in 2017 compared to the 51,489 visitors during the same period of 2016, the data showed.
The number of visitors from other Arab nations also declined by 2.1 per cent to 16,093 visitors until the end of 12th week this year, compared to 16,445 visitors during the same period of 2016.
The European visitors until the end of 12th week of 2017 showed a growth of 30.1 per cent to touch 4,085 visitors from 3,139 visitors during the same period last year. Visitors from other nations reached 2,276 until the end of 12th week from 1,667 visitors at the end of 12th week of Khareef Salalah in 2016.
Of the total number of visitors during 12th week, 46.8 per cent of the visitors arrived by land. There was a 19.2 per cent growth in visitors who arrived by air this year at 160,910 visitors compared to 135,020 visitors until the end of 12th week of 2016. Of this, 117,904 visitors arrived by domestic flights compared to 85,330 visitors until the end of the 12th week of last year, comprising a growth by 38.2 per cent.
Visitors who arrived by international flights declined by 13.5 per cent to 43,006 visitors until the end of the 12th week of 2017 from 49,690 visitors during the same period last year.
A total of 477,209 visitors arrived by land route during the period compared to 505,755 visitors last year registering a 5.6 per cent decline, the data showed.
Compared with the 11th week of 2017, when the total number of visitors was 33,358 visitors, there was a 75.8 per cent decline in the number of visitors during the 12th week of 2017 to 8,065 visitors. There was a 67.3 per cent decline in the number of visitors compared with total number of visitors during the 12th week of 2016, which was 24,658, the data showed.