Salalah gets ready for tourist arrivals

Muscat: The governorate of Dhofar, in the far south of the sultanate, is undergoing a major face-lift in preparation for next month's Salalah Tourism Festival.

Popularly dubbed the khareef (autumn) festival, this annual fete celebrates the arrival of the monsoon.

The season officially starts every year on June 21 and ends on August 31, when great numbers of visitors converge on this sub-tropical landscape for a family holiday.

On Wednesday, the governorate's top tourism official, Khalid Bin Musallam Al Rowas, said the many natural springs, caves and parkland settings that abound in the area are being beautified and suitably developed.

An estimated 351,500 tourists visited Salalah last year. GCC tourists accounted for roughly half of these arrivals, with the UAE contributing 72,261 tourists.