More than 71 per cent of Khareef Salalah visitors were Omanis

Muscat: Omani citizens constituted 71.3 per cent of the total number of Khareef Salalah visitors this year.
The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) concludes on Thursday the field works for surveying Khareef Salalah visitors whcih started on June 21 and will continue until September 21.
The survey included all visitors to Salalah by land and air transport.
The statistics as on September 19 showed a growth in the number of citizens which constituted 71.3 per cent this year compared to 70.5 per cent during the same period in 2016.
The survey, implemented for the 14th successive year in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Royal Oman Police aimed at identifying the size of domestic and foreign tourism during Khareef season, the growth rates, the demographic and economic characteristics of the visitors, in addition to the specifications of the tourism journeys.
The total number of visitors stood at 301,991 as on August 1, according to the statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Country-wise statistics as on September 19 show that visitors from citizens and residents of the Gulf States including the Sultanate constituted 98.7 per cent of the total number of visitors compared to 0.5 per cent from Asian countries and about 0.5 per cent from other Arab countries.
It should be noted that the Khareef Salalah Survey 2016 pointed out that the total number of visitors stood at 652,986 compared to 514,777 in 2015; a growth by 26.8 per cent. The total expenditure during 2016 season stood at about OMR66 million.
The survey data will provide information about the status of tourism sector in the Governorate of Dhofar during Khareef season which will help in preparing the necessary plans to develop this important productive sector.