The number of tourists in the Khareef season of Salalah in the year 2017 marginally slips down by 1.2% to 644,931 compared with 652,986 during the 2016 season. But the expenditure of these tourists increased to RO 66 million compared with RO 65 million in 2016, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

According to a survey conducted by the NCSI between June 21 and September 21, 2017, average per capita expenditure increased from  RO 101 per person in 2016 to RO 103 per capita in 2017. The occupancy level was 35.3% of total tourism expenditure, while spending on shopping, transportation and entertainment was 22.4%, and food and drink 22.6%. In July and August, hotel revenue from food and drink in Dhofar governorate was at its highest level with 82.6% and 70.8% respectively. Other revenues of the hotels have increased in July and August, reflecting a clear increase in tourists' spending on other items. In total, leisure and entertainment tourism was 90.8% which is valued as RO 60 million of total tourism expenditure in 2017. Business tourism was valued as 5.2% of total expenditure.The total withdrawals from ATMs in Dhofar governorate during the Khareef season of 2017 was RO 523.77 million. The peak time for this was the month of August when an estimated RO 108.473 million were withdrawn which is an increase of  20.5% over the previous month. Among the visitors, families of on an average of five members preferred apartments and furnished houses for accommodation which exceeded their total expenditure on this type of housing to RO 48 million or 73% of the total expenditure of tourists on housing.

The number of nights spent during the Khareef season of 2017 was 4.350 million nights compared with 4.396 million nights during the 2016 Khareef season, with a decrease of 1% The statistics show that Omani tourists' nights were 78% of total tourists' nights compared with 77% during the 2016 season.It is noteworthy that Gulf tourists, including Omanis, were 89.3% of the total tourists.The number of Omani tourists reached to 458,579 visitors, which is 71.1% of the total number of tourists, while the number of visitors from the United Arab Emirates was 57,352, which is 8.9% of total tourists. The number of tourists from Saudi Arabia was 39,115 which is 6.1% of total tourists during Khareef season of 2017. The number of tourists from the State of Qatar is 8,076 visitors which is 1.3%, from Kuwait 6212 which is 1%, from the Kingdom of Bahrain 6,672 which is 1%, and other Arab tourists 16,616 who constitute 2.6% of total tourists. Asian tourists were 44,801 who were 6.9%, while tourists of other nationalities were 7,508 who were 1.2% of total tourists during the season.

Though, the main reason for the slight fall in the number of visitors in 2017 was due to late onset of Khareef season and starting of academic year, yet the number of tourists in the season maintained annual growth rate of 11.9% since 2015.The tourism for entertainment was 93.8% in terms of number of visitors, while the rest 3.2% were for business and 2.3% for visiting family and friends. The number of tourists for Khareef season who came through land routes were highest compared to the visitors coming through air routes.. The number of tourists who came through land routes was 478,872 which is 74.3% compared with 166,059 who came through air who are estimated to be 25.7%. The intensity of the use of land routes was reflected positively on the performance of the gas stations, where the demand for the Khareef season of 2017 was about 205 million liters for about 92,000 vehicles. With the development of the road network leading to Dhofar governorate,  in addition to the internal roads, the Khareef season of 2017 saw a decrease in the number of road accidents compared with the previous years. The number of accidents reached 49 between May and October 2017. Of the total number of these accidents, 69% took place during the Khareef season while 10% one month before the season and 20% after the end of the Khareef season by a month.

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