Hotel occupancy up in Oman hotels

Energy Tuesday 06/February/2018 20:55 PM
By: Times News Service
Hotel occupancy up in Oman hotels

Muscat: Occupancy in Oman’s hotels increased in 2017, even as it saw a drop in other countries in the Gulf, a report has disclosed.
The report was filed by STR global, a company that collates data for marketplace insights. It stated that hotels in Oman experienced a rise of four per cent in occupancy rates in 2017, as compared with 2016.
It added that Saudi Arabia’s hotel occupancy rates dropped by five per cent during the same period. The same figure for Qatar was minus six per cent. Bahrain’s hotels saw a decline in occupancy by three per cent, while the UAE’s performance remained the same.
The only nation in the region that registered an increase, apart from Oman, was Kuwait, with its hotels seeing a rise of 8 per cent in occupancy. Significantly, four- and five-star hotels in the Sultanate witnessed an occupancy of 71 per cent, a rise of 7 per cent. Moreover, resorts in Oman registered an occupancy of 66 per cent, an 11 per cent increase.
Salalah’s hotel occupancy stood at 66 per cent, seeing no rise. Observers, however, put this down to an increase in the number of hotels and insisted that tourism in the provincial capital had picked up.
Vijay Handa, cluster general manager at Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve and three other hotels, credited the Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran) for the Sultanate’s good performance in the tourism sector. He said the government-owned company had been excellent in fulfilling its mandate to promote tourism in Oman.
“Omran has done really well. The focus was right and the results have followed. The global economy has recovered and the Sultanate is drawing in a lot of tourists from Europe, India, China, and from within Oman as well,” Handa said.
He further stated that the increase in occupancy had been especially impressive in Duqm. “In our Duqm hotel, occupancy had been 25 per cent in 2016, which rose to some 44 per cent in 2017. This is a result of business picking up in the city. A refinery is coming up and vehicles are being manufactured,” he remarked.
Handa also said that revenues have shot up with the occupancy rates. “Revenues from our Duqm hotel increased by 40 per cent, which was most impressive. Our Masirah hotel also did well, with an increase of 18 to 20 per cent in revenue, while Ras Al Jinz Reserve saw a revenue rise of 11 to 12 per cent,” he added.
Handa also noted that Oman had attracted more tourists than most other countries in the region because of its natural beauty, safety, and warmth of the people. He said more hotels would now come up and the new airport would also help.
Echoing the sentiment, Praveen George, general manager of sales at Al Falaj Hotel, said 2017 was good for his hotel. “Things improved in the past year and they continue to get better. For instance, 2018 has gotten off to a good start,” he said.