Upscale hotels in Oman reported positive spikes in revenues in the first 11 months of the year, recording a total revenue of RO188.7 million ($488.9 million), up 8.5 per cent compared to the RO173.9 million ($450.6 million) registered for the same period in 2017, new data showed.

According to figures released by Oman's National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), hotel occupancy rates also increased by 0.9 per cent to 57 per cent from January-November 2018, against 56.5 per cent for the same period of 2017.

However, the total number of guests in Omani hotels in the 11-month period of 2018 declined by 2.8 per cent to 1.35 million from 1.38 million for the same period of 2017.

Among the different nationalities, Europeans topped the list with the maximum number of visitors at 476,875 - a decline of 7.8 per cent over the same period of 2017. This was followed by Omani guests, which stood at 369,373 (down 3.5 per cent when compared to the same period of 2017), and 180,840 tourists from GCC countries, also down 8.8 per cent compared to last year.

In the case of African, Asian, Oceanian and American, the numbers went up 15.8 per cent, 17.3 per cent, 3.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent to 10,888, 168,807, 13,787, and 48,454 guests, respectively, during the 11-month period, the data showed.

At the end of 2017, Omani hotels received 1.53 million guests and generated a total revenue of RO194.66 million ($504.4 million), the report added. - TradeArabia News Service