Oman’s luxury hotels report 26% rise in revenues to $360m

Oman News Agency

Luxury hotels in Oman reported double-digit growth in the year to August, driven by a surge in foreign tourists.

Revenues of three-to-five-star hotels grew by 26.3 percent year on year to OMR 138.38 million ($359.43 million), the state-run Oman News Agency reported, quoting data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information.

• Oman’s total foreign assets rise 27% to $18bn
• Strong demand for Oman’s biggest IPO in two decades
• Sustainable tourism the new priority for Middle East  

The number of hotel guests increased by 26.7 percent year on year to 1.28 million by August 2023. Hotel occupancy rose by 10.4 percent annually.

Room booking by Omanis rose 5.3 percent annually to 499,840, while GCC hotel guest numbers jumped 25.1 percent yearly to 137,367.

On the other hand, European hotel arrivals rose 44 percent year on year to 275,672.

Hotel bookings by Asians grew around 44 percent to 187,486, while the number of hotel guests from Oceania reported a significant jump, rising by 229 percent to 27,110.

Oman in July granted 19 licences for developing integrated tourism complexes with investments worth OMR4.38 billion.

Projects worth OMR3.12 billion were in the pre-implementation phase, ONA reported, citing a statement from the ministry of heritage and tourism.

Oman in 2016 launched a 25-year strategy to increase the number of tourists to 11.7 million per year by 2040 from 2.6 million in 2015.

The sultanate aims to grow tourism’s GDP contribution to six percent from 2.6 percent, by building new hotels and promoting destination “clusters”.

Oman’s Vision 2040 economic plan has allocated OMR20 billion to further grow the tourism sector.