Oman is waiting for twice as many tourists from Russia

During the first five months of this year 6,000 Russians visited Oman. This is almost 2 thousand more than for the entire 2017 - when the country was visited by 4,200 of Russian travelers. By the end of the year the Sultanate expects to increase the tourist flow by 2 times. Such statistics were published by the Ministry of Tourism of Oman at the presentation of the direction in Moscow. The event aroused great interest among tourism players - there were many people wishing to get new information. "Taking into account the regular flights of Oman Air and the charter flights of NordWind (the customer is Pegas Touristik tour operator), we hope to host 8 thousand Russians by the end of the year", - said Salman Bin Eday Al Mamari, the head of the Tourism Ministry of Oman. Recall, that Oman Air is to launch the daily flight program from Moscow to Muscat in late October. As it became known recently, the date of the first departure was shifted from October 28 to October 31. Mr. Ihab Sorial, vice president of international sales of the company, told that as of today the first flights are sold by 90%. At the same time, in his opinion, it is too early to make conclusions about the demand for the direction as a whole. "According to our forecasts, the most active sales will begin in late September-October. For this period we extended the campaign, during which you can buy the round trip tickets for 29,000 Rubles ($ 441)", - the airline's top manager noted. From October 15, the flight program of NordWind from Moscow to Salalah will also begin. Pegas Touristik Company reported that there are no unsold seats on the boards performing the first flights. The general director of the tour operator Anna Podgornaya concluded: the interest of tourists for the direction is high and the ministry's plans for a two-fold increase of the Russian tourist traffic are quite feasible. In addition to direct transportation, “light visa regime” played an important role in the popularization of the direction. Now, Russians can get documents online for two days or upon arrival in the country. It is also known that the cost of a 10-day visa has decreased from 20 to 5 Rials ($ 13). However, according to observers, to compete with the UAE and Qatar will be difficult for Oman without serious investments in advertising this year.