96 hotels are expected to open by 2021

MUSCAT: Ninety six hotels of various classifications are expected to open by 2020-2021, the Ministry of Tourism announced on Monday. There was a massive growth in the tourism sector of the Sultanate of Oman during last five years which helped it achieve positive indicators.
There was an increase in the number of hotels and incomes leading to reduction of average rate of rooms.
This has made investment more attractive in the Sultanate of Oman. Due to this, the number of tourists coming to the Sultanate has also gone up.
The income of hotel establishments has increased from OMR190 million in 2013 to OMR260 million in 2019. This is due to the increase in the investments in the hotel establishment of the Sultanate, which has resulted in the number of hotel rooms from 13,603 in 2013 to 25,408 in 2019. The increase in the number of hotel rooms was a natural result of increase in the hotel establishments from 266 in 2013 to 492 in 2019.
This is due to the increase in the investment in hotel establishments as well as in the tourism movement in various governorates of the Sultanate. The number of the tourists coming to the Sultanate reached 3.5 million last year. The number of those who left the Sultanate during the same year reached 6.6 million.
The statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) indicate that the total revenue of 3 to 5 star hotels during 2019 reached around OMR230 million, whereas the number of the guests of these hotels reached 1.8 million.
The statistics also showed that the total number of tourists who arrived through cruise ships until the end of December last year were 283,000. Most of them were Germans as their number was 111,000, followed by British who were 27,023 visitors. They are followed by Italians, Spanish and Americans.
The number of the tourists coming from the Gulf countries during 2019 reached 1.4 million. They are followed by Indians who were 437,000, then were Germans who were 176,000, British 157,000, then were Yemenis with 120,000.
There are projections that there would be significant growth in the tourism sector of the Sultanate in the year 2020. It is expected that the number of rooms in various hotel establishments would increase to meet the requirements of the growing number of tourists coming to the Sultanate and there would be rise in the tourism activity through 96 hotel establishments of various classifications expected to open in 2020-2021. There was an increase by 7.5 per cent in the number of guests of hotels from 3,300 in 2017 to 5,600 guests in 2018. This shows success of the promotional efforts of the domestic tourism. The influx of foreign tourists also indicate capabilities of the services given by the hotels of the Sultanate.
The total number of preliminary approvals given to set up hotel establishments until the end of 2019 was 153. It was to provide 7,528 rooms. The number of under construction hotel establishments reached 139 by the end of 2019. They are expected to provide 7,693 rooms.
The total number of hotel establishments expected to open during 2020-2022 will reach 135 with 7,401 rooms. The total number of licenses given for hotel establishments during 2019 reached 94, which would provide 3,694 rooms. The total number of licenses given to tourism companies, including those of travel and tourism and tourist transport, reached 1,723 by the end of 2019.
The total number of tourists who visited the Sultanate during Salalah tourism season reached 766,772 during 2019. There were 45,914 tourists visited Ras Al-Jinz Turtle Reserve during 2019. Similarly, 84,539 tourists visited Jabal Akhdar till June 2019.
The total number of visitors of the water pools of Wadi Bani Khalid reached 220,320 till the end of 2019. It was a significant 18 per cent increase over 187,107 of 2018. A total 55,320 tourists visited Hoota cave, 2,221 visited Al-Ansab lakes and 785 visited Al-Qurm Natural Reserve during 2019. There was an increase of 36 per cent in the number of visitors of Natural and Biodiversity Reserve of Al-Wusta from 475 in 2018 to 648 in 2019. The total number of the visitors of Al-Dimaniyat islands increased by 13 per cent from 27,690 of 2018 to 31,424 in 2019.