As many as 586,718 tourists visited Salalah during the end of the seventh week (August 2 to 8) of the Khareef season, an increase of 36.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2017, which was 429,349.

According to the latest statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the number of visitors in the seventh week decreased by 5.6 per cent to 138,856 compared to 147,054 visitors during the sixth week of the current season.

NCSI statistics showed that visitors arriving by land during the end of the seventh week increased 81.5 per cent to 478,306 visitors, which is a rise of 44.2 per cent compared to 331,699 visitors during the same period in 2017. The number also showed a decline of 8.4 per cent to 114,765 from 125,235 visitors in the sixth week of the current season.

A total of 108,412 visitors reached Dhofar governorate by air, an increase of 11 per cent over the same period in 2017, which was registered at 97,650 visitors.

There was an increase of 10.4 per cent in the number of visitors by air in the seventh week compared to the sixth week of the current season, with the number of arrivals on domestic flights increasing to 18,184 visitors in the seventh week from 16,339 visitors in the sixth week. The number of visitors arriving by international flights reached 5,907 in the seventh week compared to 5,480 in the sixth week.

The statistics showed that 81.6 per cent, or 113,317 visitors, during the seventh week were residents of the sultanate and 25,539 were non-residents.

The tourists from Gulf regions, including the Omanis, accounted for 94.4 per cent of the total visitors to the Salalah Khareef season during the seventh week, reaching 553,599 visitors compared to 389,834 visitors during the same period in 2017, which is a rise of 42 per cent.

The number of visitors of Asian nationality was 17,860, which is a decrease of 33.6 per cent from 26,898 visitors during the same period. Of the total number of visitors, 12,166 were from other Arab countries, 1,926 from European countries, and 1,167 were from other countries. - TradeArabia News Service