Oman- Dhofar beckons as khareef season begins today

Date

6/21/2016 6:52:44 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat-

The three-month khareef season in the Governorate of Dhofar begins from Tuesday.

The governorate, a hot spot of family tourism, sees the maximum number of domestic visitors and from the Gulf region.

Last year''s khareef saw 514,000 people with an average of 5,000 tourists visiting per day.

According to the Khareef Salalah 2015 Visitors'' Survey conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and ROP, the number of Gulf visitors, including Omanis was 459,000 and constituted 89.2 per cent of the total number of visitors to the governorate.

Of these 378,068 were Omanis and 81,299 visitors from other GCC countries.

Considered one of the most important time of the year for tourism, the season affects most coastal wilayats in Dhofar (from the wilayat of Dalkout in the west to the wilayat of Mirbat in the east).

The season officially begins on June 21 every year and ends on September 21.

The rain during the season changes the landscape of the area luring tourists from across the GCC and both private and public sector enterprises cash in on the tourist influx.

The Al Fanar Hotel & Residences with 218 rooms is a new addition this year. The first stage of Salalah Beach Resort has also been completed to increase the number of rooms in the resort to 700. Some of the other options in the area include the Salalah Rotana Resort and the Juweira Boutique Hotel.

The Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara near the Al Baleed Unesco World Heritage Site, will open next month.

To cater to the season''s rush several airlines have also increased the number of flights. Flydubai will operate 14 flights a week to Salalah from July 1.

Qatar Airways has added additional ten flights per week from Doha to Salalah, to meet the season''s demand.

Oman Air will have 11 flights a day between Salalah and Muscat.

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