Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Hotels in Duqm are experiencing a significant improvement in occupancy and revenue.
Hoteliers in the port city said their establishments were busier in 2017 than in 2016, and 2018 has started on a good note. Some hotels saw a 20 to 25 per cent spike in occupancy which is well above the national average of 4 per cent.
Vijay Handa, cluster general manager of City Hotel in Duqm besides three other hotels, credited this to the increasing business activity in the city. He said the occupancy at City Hotel had gone up by almost 20 per cent in 2017, when compared with 2016.
“Right now, occupancy at City Hotel is 33 per cent. When compared with February 2017, it is definitely better,” he said, adding that the demand has been growing further.
“The rise in demand is down due to the fact that things were slow to pick up. The projects that were supposed to come up in four or five years are coming up now. So, there was a delay in us receiving these customers,” Handa noted.
“The proposals are there, but it’s difficult to predict when they will be executed. We were expecting guests associated with the Duqm refinery in June or July. But now, we are more likely to receive them in September,” he further remarked. Handa reaffirmed that the occupancy and revenue would continue to get better.
Echoing the sentiment, Park Inn hotel manager Ahmad Daghmash said: “The hotel occupancy and revenue increased by over 25 per cent compared with last year, mainly because of business travellers, investors, and works awarded at Duqm. We do believe that the best is yet to come to Duqm.”
An official at a four star hotel in Duqm, said that occupancy and revenue at their hotel had been constantly climbing. He said the upturn in fortunes was due to fresh international investments and businesses.
“Oman Data Park is coming up. So, that will help. Port-related business activity is also a good sign,” he said, adding that the difference between Duqm and other destinations such as Salalah, Muscat and Khasab was that the former was not a tourist spot.
“Seasonality doesn’t apply to Duqm and occupancy doesn’t go up significantly during a particular time of the year,” he said.
‘Pit stop for tourists’
The official insisted that most people wrongly ignored the few tourists that Duqm’s hotels received.
“It is to be noted that Duqm is midway between Muscat and Salalah. Many people travelling by road think of Duqm as a place where they can stop and rest. So, we get many tourists, including those from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries such as the UAE stopping over at Duqm during the Khareef season, when they’re on their way to Salalah,” he said.
A report filed by STR global, a company that collates data for marketplace insights, had revealed that occupancy in Oman’s hotels had increased by 4 per cent in 2017 as comparted to 2016, even as it saw a drop in most other Gulf countries.
