[Oman-l] Oman news from arabia.com

[Joachim Duester]

In reply to Abdulla's remarks, I would suggest that the large difference
between the 600K tourism arrivals and PerryH's 35K of tourist visiting Oman
annually can be explained by the following: 35.000 "true" holiday makers
visit Oman annually (is that really so?), while there are more than 600.000
"arrivals" from abroad every year. The "arrivals" would also include
business and family visitors, expats (and perhaps even Omanis) returning
from abroad from business trips, medical trips and holidays, etc. etc.

I remember how some people were puzzled by Oman's "tourism" statistics in
the early 1970s. For many, "tourism" only meant holiday makers, i.e. people
travelling to another country just for fun and without having any business
or family contacts etc. there, while for the Omani government and the
statistical people "tourism" refered to any sort of traveling, and tourism
figures simply reflected the in-and outflux of people regardless of the
reason for their travelling.

Joachim

 ----- Original Message -----

The Arab-British Trade latest issue July/August 2000, Vol. 8, Issue 4 ran a

feature on Hotels and Tourism in the Arab World Trends and Opportunities. 
This feature is drawn from the Millennium report entitled "Middle East 
Hotels-Trends and Opportunities" compiled by Hospitality Valuation Services

(HVS) International. On p. 19, this feature reports that, according to the 
World Tourism Organisation, tourism arrivals to Oman increased by 
approximately 22 per cent to 617,000, enabling occupancy levels for Muscat 
quality hotels to increase marginally to 57 per cent in 1999 despite the 
increase in supply recently experienced in the city. In addition, the 
dampening of the economy and the increase in supply with the recent opening

of the Radisson SAS have caused average rates to decrease by 4.2 per cent
to 
$91, decreasing further below the $100 threshold.

This is a far cry from what PerryH has reported from Muscat as to the level

of tourists visiting Oman! In the least the two contrasting figures are 
irreconcilable and causes confusion. To be able to get a better picture
could 
we ask for a source for PerryH figure of 35K tourists?

Thanx


Abdulla


 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Perry H <perryh@omantel.net.om>
 To: <oman-l@oman.org>
 Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 12:22 PM
 Subject: Re: [Oman-l] Oman news from arabia.com
 
 
 > Re tourist village article.
 > These are new figures to me. The one for tourist numbers that I have
seen
 > quoted here (in Oman) most commonly is about 35K tourists for the last
 year.
 > As for the rial earned by hotels - this is pretty amazing given there
are
 so
 > few hotels. On the whole I find the figures VERY hard to believe.
 > PerryH
 > Muscat
 >
 >
 >
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: Joachim Duester <oman@compuserve.com>
 > To: Oman Maillist <Oman-L@oman.org>
 > Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 1:30 AM
 > Subject: [Oman-l] Oman news from arabia.com
 >
 >
 > >
 > > OMAN BARKA PRIVATE POWER PLANT TO COST $455 M
 > > The 400-megawatt Barka power project would include a 20 million gallon
 > > water
 > > desalination plant.
 > > http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Business|28418,00.html
 > >
 > > OMAN STARTS BUILDING A $150 M TOURIST VILLAGE
 > > The Gulf Arab state is on a drive to diversify its economy away from
oil
 > > and
 > > gas revenues which make up about 70% of its income.
 > > http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Business|28371,00.html