Muscat: Hotels in the three-to-five-star category in the Sultanate of Oman registered a remarkable rise till the end of April this year. According to figures released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the revenue reached OMR95.4 million during the period with a 12.2 per cent rise compared to OMR85.1 million during the corresponding period of last year.
However, hotel occupancy rates fell by 2.3pc to reach 67.1pc at the end of April 2019 against 68.6pc for the same period of 2018.
According to the latest statistics, the total number of guests in the Sultanate’s hotels showed a substantial increase by 20pc in the first four months of 2019, reaching 683,150 from 569,383 guests for the same period of 2018.
Among the nationalities, Europeans constituted the maximum number of visitors, reaching 307,840. This was followed by 165,032 Omani guests and 73,786 Asian tourists till the end of April 2019, the data released by NCSI revealed.
There was a rise in the number of American guests and other Arab guests by 4.7pc and 12.4pc to reach 23,192 and 26,123, respectively.
However, there was a drop in the number of GCC, African and Oceania guests by 0.2pc, 6.6pc and 2.2pc to reach 58,742; 4,271 and 6,302 guests, respectively.
The Sultanate’s hotels received 1.49 million guests and the hotels generated a total revenue of OMR214.1 million in 2018, Oman Observer reported.