UK travellers can now book ferry travel in Oman with Direct Ferries, the ferry travel comparison site. 

Direct Ferries is the first European agent to work with the National Ferries Company which offers high speed services between numerous destinations on the Omani coast.

The high speed ferry company offers travellers to Oman a completely different way to discover this beautiful country. 

The longest crossings from Khasab in the north of the country to the capital Muscat is six hours and the service operates once a week to the more frequent and much shorter Shannah to Masirah crossing which takes just one hour and operates 24 x return-round trips weekly.

Other crossings are both ways from Shinas to Dibba, Dibba to Khasab, Dibba to Lima, Khasab to Shinas and Lima to Shinas.

The ultra-modern ferries offer a key service along the 3,165 km coastline of Oman and are popular with locals and tourists alike.

In the last few years Oman has been generating a lot of noise in the tourism sector with a 17.7 per cent increase in visitor numbers since 2014 to just under five million globally, with the UK & Ireland contributing 150,000 visitors in 2015. 

Matt Davies, chief executive, Direct Ferries said: “This is an important development in the Middle East for us. 

“Oman is an exciting destination, growing in popularity with UK tourists and we are delighted to be working with NFC, offering a high quality, ferry experience and an alternative way to discover this beautiful country.”

Direct Ferries has experienced over 15 years of continued growth with revenues in excess of £100 million and is now present in 29 markets worldwide.

Due to their increased presence in the Middle East, the Direct Ferries website is now available in Arabic.

Mehdi Al Abduwani, chief executive, NFC said: “We are very pleased to welcome Direct Ferries to our distribution network of agents, we are confident of growing our UK and European markets for Oman’s inbound travel with Direct Ferries presence.”