Season of roses begins in Jabal Akhdar

The rose water industry has become a profession for many people of Jabal Akhdar as a major source of income

MUSCAT: The season of roses has begun in Jabal Akhdar, also known as the green mountain, where buds are blooming to be 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 were between 80% and 100%. 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 the months of March, April, May, 34,559 tourists visited Jabal Akhdar. With 233,012 visitors by the end of 2017, there was a qualitative leap of 43.4% over 162,499 during 2016.

Hamoud bin Khalid bin Saleh Al Qamshoui, director of Tourism in Al Dakhliya governorate, said that Jabal Akhdar was famous for its many tourist attractions, especially 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 the environment suitable for multiple agricultural products and increases their yield.

He also said that one of the most important plants which the people of Jabal Akhdar were keen to cultivate were roses. It is in good quality and abundance in the green mountain. The rose water industry has become a profession for many people of Jabal Akhdar as a major source of income.

This season has become one of the important attraction for tourists who also want to know the method of manufacturing rose water in both traditional and modern means.

He said that the season of harvesting roses in Jabal Akhdar was a major attraction. According to statistics, the number of tourists of Jabal Akhdar is continuously increasing. This because of its characteristics and unique features, during the farming seasons which included 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 were 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 the tourists can visit, after coordinating with their owners, so that they can get to see the old method of manufacturing rose water.

About the plans of the Ministry of Tourism for the 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 Al Jabal Al Akhdar, said that since the beginning of the month 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 Jebel Akhdar in the GCC and in Europe.

The percentage of occupancy since the beginning of March until mid-April was between 80% and 100% and during the past two weeks, it ranged between 90% and 100%. 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 were also a 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 the visit to the laboratories of rose water.

The tourists accompany there with a tour guide who is from among the local’s people of Jabal Akhdar. During the tour, tourists are informed about the stages of the rose water processing.

In addition, there are many other activities for tourist. They including mountain trekking 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 Jabal 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, Adel bin Nasser Al Amri, one of the workers in this industry, said that with the start of the blooming of roses harvest season begins on April 1. 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 a fire for which wood is used. Then the fresh water of roses is extracted through a slow distillation method. There is a huge demand for Omani rose water, he said.