271
Hotels
That puts Muscat at 2 of 11 on the official table.
Back to Muscat
Muscat · Topic file
Does Muscat have a real place economy, or just rooms on paper?
A lot of governorates are sold on heritage, climate, scenery or access. The numbers have to back up the story — empty rooms are not a visitor economy. For Muscat, the honest read comes down to hotels and hotel occupancy rate.
55.1%
Hotel occupancy rate
That puts Muscat at 1 of 11 on the official table.
The numbers
Where Muscat stands today, chart by chart
Hotels
Number of hotels by governorate in 2025.
NCSI Statistical Year Book 2026, Table 2-21.
Hotel occupancy rate
Hotel occupancy rate by governorate in 2025.
NCSI Statistical Year Book 2026, Table 9-21.
The trend over time
How Muscat got here
Hotels
How quickly the hotel base is growing — useful for spotting where the tourism story is real on the ground, and where it is still mostly a brochure.
2022–2024: Table 2-21, Statistical Year Book 2025 (Issue 53). 2025: Table 2-21, Statistical Year Book 2026 (Issue 54).
Hotel occupancy rate
How full the hotels actually are. Capacity is easy to build; this is the line that tells you whether visitors are turning up.
2022–2024: Table 9-21, Statistical Year Book 2025 (Issue 53). 2025: Table 9-21, Statistical Year Book 2026 (Issue 54).
Reading the charts
What the latest tables are really saying
- Muscat is showing 271 on hotels. That puts Muscat at 2 of 11 on the official table.
- Muscat is showing 55.1% on hotel occupancy rate. That puts Muscat at 1 of 11 on the official table.
- MOHUP's Urban Strategy 2040 positions Muscat as a world-class, cosmopolitan and sustainable capital built around compact growth, public transport, business services, tourism, and a stronger metropolitan core. Visitor numbers, service quality and the feel of the place are part of the real test here, not just the branding.
Why this file matters
The strategy Muscat is being measured against
Hotels, occupancy, and whether the place is becoming a real destination or just adding rooms.
MOHUP's Urban Strategy 2040 positions Muscat as a world-class, cosmopolitan and sustainable capital built around compact growth, public transport, business services, tourism, and a stronger metropolitan core.
- Ghala is meant to emerge as a new central business district for Muscat.
- The strategy explicitly calls for denser development around public transport nodes and a broader shift away from pure private-car dependence.
- Finance, trade, hospitality and tourism remain the core city-economy functions in the official spatial role.
Related topic files
Five more ways into the Muscat execution map
These linked files cover the other live tests in the same governorate, so the numbers on capital, jobs, services, tourism, utilities, and urban buildout can be read together instead of in isolation.
Muscat topic file
Capital deployment
How much money is actually being committed, and whether the property market is picking up the signal.
Muscat topic file
Urban buildout and housing
Population, permits and whether the place is actually being built fast enough for the role it has been handed.
Muscat topic file
Jobs and enterprise
The jobs and businesses that show whether the governorate has a working economy, or just a project list.
Muscat topic file
Human capability and essential services
Whether schools and hospitals are keeping up — the simplest read on whether people can build a life here.
Muscat topic file
Infrastructure and utilities
Roads, water and the quiet base layer that usually decides whether any of the rest of it actually works.