Muscat: Tourism being one of the promising sectors in the Sultanate of Oman, the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism is currently offering investment opportunities for local companies and enterprises for managing 15 historic landmarks (castles and forts) to showcase the cultural heritage and enhance its contribution to the economy.

Khamis bin Humaid bin Hamad Al Qasmi, Head of the Tourism Statistics Department, and the Supervisor of the arrivals and departures survey at the National Centre for Statistics and Information said: “The field work for the arrivals and departures survey 2023/2024, which is implemented by the National Centre for Statistics and Information in cooperation with the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism and the Royal Oman Police, continues at Muscat International Airport, Salalah Airport, and six land ports, namely Khutma Milaha border crossing, Al-Wajjah, Al-Khatm, Hamasa, Hafeet, and Al-Dara border crossing .

He added that t, which kicked off on 1 December 2023 and will last until 30 November 2024.

He clarified that, among the objectives sought by the project is to estimate the total number of tourists who visited the Sultanate of Oman and measure their demographic, economic characteristics, and the number of nights of stay during their trip.

He pointed out that the information provided by this important project will help in identifying the real status of the tourism sector and enable it to develop appropriate plans to meet the challenges.

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism exerts its efforts to utilise statistical data and figures in a systematic manner to create indicators that can support decision-making process, and to achieve the Oman Vision 2040 targets for enhancing the tourism sector.

Accordingly, the MHT always conducts a quarterly comprehensive evaluation of its plans and programmes related to the goals of Oman 2040 and compare them with the achieved statistical indicators, which will help the implementation of tourism plans and initiatives.

The Ministry has achieved some of the goals of Oman 2040 vision. While the target was to reach 33,000 hotel rooms by the end of 2025, the Ministry’s statistics indicate that the achieved indicator stood at 32,371 by the end of September 2023.

Though the target for the number of tourists was set at 2.5 million by the end of 2023, a total of 2.9 million visited by the end October 2023.

The target percentage of the tourism sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) at constant prices for the year 2025 was set at 2.75 percent, but it was almost accomplished in 2022, when GDP at constant prices for that year stood at 2.4 percent.

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