The number of visitors to Salalah for the khareef season has nosedived during Ramadan. The southern governorate saw a massive drop of 54.6 per cent in visitor numbers from July 18 to August 1 as compared to the same period last year.
The first day of Ramadan just witnessed 580 tourists. However, the figure on July 20, one day before Ramadan was 1,463. The lowest footfall this season was reported on July 31 with just 450 visitors, and the highest on July 13 with 9,686 tourists.
The khareef season officially starts on June 21 every year and lasts till September 21. During this period, the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and ROP carries out a survey to keep a tab on the number of visitors to Dhofar.
The governorate recorded 125,298 visitors between June 21 and August 1, while in 2011 the figure was 275,921. The huge drop is believed to have been caused by Ramadan falling during peak khareef seas on. But even in the period (June 21 to July 18) before Ramadan, there was drop of 31 per cent when compared to 2011.
With only 12,922 visitors recorded between July 18 and August 1, as compared to 113,382 last year, the next 15-day period looks bleak. An official at NCSI said that the tourist inflow has not been very encouraging. "It was Ramadan this time last year too, but the situation was not this bad."
The official added, "As of now we are not sure if we will cross the total figure of 339,500 witnessed in 2011. But we are hopeful that tourists will increase dramatically during the Eid holidays and expect the good run to continue till the beginning of September," said the official.
Benett Francis, business head, Shanfari group of hotels, which runs Haffa House hotels and Salalah Samharam Tourist Village, said that he had seen a drop of about 35 per cent in business.
"The best time of the season is July and August but due to Ramadan the whole season was squeezed in about 25 days before the holy month. But from August 18, we are again fully booked till the end of the month."
© Muscat Daily 2012
