1.3 million Visitors arrived in the Sultanate till the end of May 2017, according to the Tourism Index Report (TIR) released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). Among the visitors, the highest number came from other GCC countries, India, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Philippines.

The total number of visitors during May 2017 was 191 thousands, a decline of 16.4% compared to the number of visitors during the same month in 2016 when it was 228 thousands. Among the visitors, the highest number was from GCC touching 90 thousands (47.4%) in May this year. The Indian, British and Philippines nationalities came second, third and fourth place consecutively and formed 13.5%, 4.8% and 4.1% respectively of the total number of visitors during May 2017. The report revealed that 477 thousands visitors departed from the Sultanate in May. This was 1.7% more than the same month in 2016. The departures of Omanis formed 64.5% of the total the number of departures from the Sultanate during May 2017. Two thousands visitors of cruise ships arrived in the Sultanate in May and there was a 70% dip in the number of cruise ship visitors this year compared to same month in 2016, when it was 7 thousands. Among the total number of visitors 99.6% were Europeans and of that 92.8% were Germans.

The hotel revenues (3-5 stars) reached OR 91 million till the month of May, whereas, for May alone the revenue achieved was OR 14 million. Total number of guests in 3-5 star hotels during May reached 109 thousands compared to 129 thousands during the same month last year.  In May, the total occupancy rate at 3-5 star hotels decreased to 50.9% compared to 53% occupancy rate for May 2016, which was a decrease of 4%.