The total revenue of Omani hotels in three-to-five-star category rose by 5.9 percent to RO 143.1 million in the first nine months of 2018 compared to RO 135.1 million for the same period last year, reported ONA.

Hotel occupancy rates also increased by 2 percent to reach 55.7 percent during January-September 2018 against 54.6 percent for the same period of 2017, according the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

However, the total number of guests in Omani hotels in the nine-month period of 2018 declined by 6.8 percent to 1,042,468 from 1,118,021 for the same period of 2017.

Among the nationalities, Europeans constituted the maximum number of guests at 342,762, but fell by 13.4 percent compared to the same nine-month period of 2017. This was followed by 293,975 Omani guests.

However, the number of Omani hotel guests declined by 7.3 percent compared to the same period of last year. Likewise, guests from GCC countries fell by 10.3 percent to 152,891 guests in the first nine months of 2018, from 170,423 for the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, there was an increase in the number of African, Asian and Oceanian visitors by 17.1 percent, 11.9 percent and 11.8 percent to 8,910, 132,520 and 10,529 guests, respectively, during the January-September 2018 period, the provisional data released by NCSI revealed.

American visitors rose by 0.7 percent to 37,572 guests, while guests from other Arab countries decline a 5.9 percent to 45,735 guests during the period under review.

Omani hotels received 1.53 million guests and the hotels generated a total revenue of RO 194.66 million in 2017, added the NCSI report.