Muscat: The Minister of Tourism, Ahmed bin Nasser al Mehrazi, in an interview said the total value of the tourism sector in Oman was RO912 million at the end of 2018, compared to RO728 million in 2017, at an annual growth rate of 25 per cent.
"The tourism sector in the Sultanate contributed 2.9 per cent to the GDP in 2018, compared to 2.6 per cent in 2017.
He pointed out that the number of visitors to the Sultanate in 2018 was 3.2 million visitors, and added that numbers will go up with the development of the Mina Sultan Qaboos Port project.
He said the Ministry of Tourism encourages participation of the private companies, especially for investments in projects related to the development of old lanes, nature reserves and development of castles and forts and adventure tourism.
He said 45 new hotel facilities were opened in 2018 taking the total number of facilities to 412, an increase of 12 per cent compared to 367 establishments at the end of 2017.
The number of hotel rooms increased from 20,581 rooms in 2017 to 22182 rooms in 2018, an increase of eight per cent.
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