Muscat: Travellers from the UAE made up the single largest component of overseas tourists spending the Eid Al Fitr holiday in monsoon-bound Salalah in the far south of Oman.
According to figures released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) on Thursday, 24,959 holidaymakers from the UAE visited this subtropical tourist haven over the four days of Eid, extending from August 9 to 12. They accounted for around 27 per cent of the total number of visitors enjoying a holiday break amid Salalah’s mist-shrouded mountains, verdant landscapes and balmy weather conditions.
Omanis and local expatriate visitors made up 65 per cent of the roughly 93,000 tourists spending the Eid holiday in Salalah, the National Centre said, citing figures provided by the Ministry of Tourism and Royal Oman Police. Visitors from Saudi Arabia totalled around 4,200 during the Eid holiday, it added. The great majority of travellers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other GCC states made the trip to this holiday hotspot by road, it further noted.
From the start of the khareef (monsoon) season on June 21 till August 12, an estimated 185,000 tourists had visited Salalah, compared to around 135,000 visitors during the same period last year, representing a 37 per cent increase, the National Centre added.
