The Governorate of Dhofar attracts thousands of tourists from other Gulf countries as well as citizens who visit Salalah to spend their summer holiday and enjoy the pleasant weather. According to the statistics of the Festival Department, more than one million people visited the Salalah Tourism Festival.

The festival’s daily activities witnessed a huge turnout of visitors in the last week. The activities, held in the Municipality’s Entertainment Centre, include the exhibitions, child and traditional villages, theatre shows and many other entertaining activities.

This year, various government and private bodies participated in the festival presenting new and useful services and information to the visitors. They strived to offer every possible support and necessary needs and guidance. There are many centres that offer leaflets, maps and other information. Counting the visitors to Salalah at this time of the year is conducted at every entry to the governorate.

The information centre at Sahel Ateen is one of the significant centres that help thousands of tourists.  The first-rate hotels in Salalah in co-operation with Oman Air offered different tourism promotions and packages at reasonable coast to promote tourism in Salalah. Among those hotels are Hilton, Crowne Plaza, Marriott Mirbat and other apartments. The prices at those hotels are cheap comparing to other tourist destinations outside the Sultanate.

To ensure safety and security to the tourists, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) was present at all locations where the festival’s activities are held. ROP also made great efforts to organise traffic as they dedicate different means to control and monitor the traffic all the day by cars, horses or roaming on foot. The Civil Defence personnel also were there to help in emergencies.

The Oman Telecommunication Company (Omantel) has also increased the number of towers in different places in Salalah to strengthen the GSM network like the one which has been built in Sahel Ateen, the most visited place during Khareef.

Media in the Sultanate played a vital role to promote the khareef and festival activities. Special TV and radio programmes have been dedicated to cover the activities along with daily Arabic and English newspapers’ reports.

The TV programmes allows the viewers to experience the real thrill and enjoyment of the khareef and the accompanying activities in Salalah.

Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA), publishers of the Observer and its sister Arabic daily, Oman, is the media sponsor of the event. It published the latest issue of the Four Season magazine featuring Salalah as an attractive tourist destination. The establishment also publishes daily a 4-page supplement in the Arabic daily, Oman, to familiarise the readers with the different wilayats and cities of the Governorate of Dhofar and the tourist places.

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