Muscat airport arrivals surge 14% to 2.4m in 2011

Muscat International Airport recorded a 14 percent rise in passengers last year to reach 2.4m arrivals, according to official industry figures released on Wednesday. Statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also reported a 13 percent rise in passenger arrivals to the Omani city of Salalah. The biggest increase in passengers was from Italy, which recorded a 77 percent growth in arrivals. Last year also saw growth in passengers from the UK (seven percent), Germany (six percent), the Netherlands (15 percent), Belgium (33 percent), Switzerland (28 percent), Russia (50 percent) while arrivals from France remained the stable. Visitors from the Gulf rose 27 percent to 618,877 passenger movements, data showed. “2011 was a challenging year for our tourism industry, but the IATA data confirms solid growth from our key tourism markets. This shows that our aligned tourism and aviation strategies are working, while our wider international airline partners are also growing their underlying business,” said HE Maitha Al Mahrouqi, Undersecretary of Oman’s Ministry of Tourism. “We are working more strategically on how to grow our key market segments. Our key message is that Oman is a unique and authentic Arabic destination with ingredients that make it a ‘must see’ destination. Both The National Geographic and Lonely Planet recognised this and are recommending Oman as a destination of choice in 2012,” she added. Muscat, which is the Arab Tourism Capital for 2012, has a number of initiatives to help boost tourism this year, including the launch of global awareness campaign on BBC Worldwide television and a reduction in tourism visa fees to attract short break and stopover arrivals High profile events will also be held at the new Royal Opera House Muscat and events such as the Tour of Oman are due to be staged. Looking the future, the completion of construction of the 3,000 seat Muscat Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2015 will help Oman to capture a stake of the lucrative exhibition and conference market.