Jabal Akhdar rose season commences

Jabal Akhdar: The season of roses has begun in Jabal Akhdar, also known as the green mountain, where buds are blooming into flowers.
With this, the arrival of tourists has also increased significantly which is more than the same period last year.
The occupancy rates in hotels since the beginning of March was between 80 per cent and 100 per cent. This is an indication that promotions campaigns in the world, particularly in the GCC and European countries were successful.
According to the 2017 statistics, during March, April and May, there were 34,559 tourists who visited Jabal Akhdar.
With 233,012 visitors by the end of 2017, there was a qualitative leap of 43.4 per cent over 162,499 during 2016.
Hamoud bin Khalid bin Saleh Al Qamshoui, Director of Tourism in the Governorate of A’Dakhliya, said that Jabal Akhdar is famous for its many tourist attractions, specially the exceptional climate, where the temperatures are moderate in the summer and fall below zero in some parts of winter. This also helps in making environment suitable for multiple agricultural products and increases their yield.
He also said that one of the most important plants which people of Jabal Akhdar are keen to cultivate are roses.
It is of good quality and abundant in the green mountain.
The rose water industry has become a profession for many people of Jabal Akhdar as a major source of income.
He said that the season of harvesting roses in Jabal Akhdar is a major attraction.
According to statistics, the number of tourists of Jabal Akhdar are continuously increasing.
This is because of its characteristics and unique features, during the farming seasons which include the season of plucking roses in Jabal Akhdar.
About the programmes offered to the tourists during the season of roses in Jabal Akhdar, Al Qamshoui said that the tourists are free to walk in some of the agricultural areas where there are some villages also situated.
They get an opportunity to see the rose plans and watch the local people early in the morning plucking roses.
There are also some traditional factories which tourists can visit, after coordinating with their owners, so that they can get to see the old method of manufacturing rose water.
About the future plans of the Ministry of Tourism for season of roses and meeting increasing demands of tourism, he said that the ministry has prepared a special booklet about the Jabal Akhdar in which it has also included agricultural and harvesting seasons of the area.
Firas Rashid, Sales and Marketing Manager at Anantara Jabal Akhdar, said that since the beginning of March, the demand for Jabal Akhdar was very high and we see that there was a significant increase of tourists, if we compare the numbers with the same period last year.
This is due to the marketing and promotion of the tourist features of Jabal Akhdar in the GCC and also in Europe.
The percentage of occupancy since the beginning of March till mid-April was between 80 per cent and 100 per cent and during the past two weeks it ranged between 90 per cent and 100 per cent.
There is a remarkable turnout from European countries, especially Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France and Italy.
Tourists have also come from GCC countries in large numbers.
There was also large number of residents of the Sultanate who come to Jabal Akhdar during the weekend.
Firas Rashid said that during the flowers’ season, the resort offered an important programme which included visit to the laboratories of rose water.
The tourists accompany there with a tour guide who are from among the locals of Jabal Akhdar.
During the tour, tourists are informed about the stages of the rose water processing.
Also there are many other activities for tourist.
They including mountain tracking with its beginner and advanced stages.
The Anantara Jabal Akhdar resort offers this activity as it is located on the edge of the mountain.
There is also walk called ‘walking through the history’ and understand the customs and traditions of the people of Al Jabal Al Akhdar and enjoy the hospitality of the original Omani hospitality.
About the rose water, which is one of the most important secrets of Jabal Akhdar, Adil bin Nasser Amri, one of the workers in this industry, said that with the start of the blooming of roses harvest season begins on the of 1st April.
The rose plucking begins early in the morning and baskets and filled with it.
Then they are taken to the place known as Dehajan to start the distillation in a small boiler.
It is boiled in an earthen vessel which is kept on fire for which wood is used.
Then the fresh water of roses is extracted through a slow distillation method.
There is a huge demand of Omani rose water, he said.