​Oman is gearing up to celebrate the International Museum Day on May 18, even as the interest of public in visiting various museums in different parts of the country has been growing year after year. The annual event of International Museum Day, which was started back in 1977, was aimed at drawing the attention of people across the globe on the importance of museums and its cultural and social role in the life of people.

According to statistics released by the Centre, the number of visitors to different museums in the Sultanate has shown a marked growth in recent years. As many as 363,005 people visited the museums in 2017, indicating a robust growth of 23 per cent over the number of visitors in the previous year. According to official statistics, Muthaf Ardh Al Luban  has attracted 103,770 visitors in 2017, which was the highest compared to other museums. However, the number of visitors to Muthaf Ardh Al Luban museum has declined from 117,744 in the previous year. The peak time of visitors to this museum was in July when it reached 17,981 and August at 30,029. The number of visitors to Bait Al Zubair Museum reached to its peak level in January with 15,811 visitors and in December with 14,817 visitors. In February and March, there were 12,699 and 12,519 visitors, respectively. However, there was a steep decline in the number of visitors to Bait Al Zubair Museum at 368 people in August.

The number of visitors to the National Museum reached 75,686 in 2017, showing a substantial growth from 11,991 in the previous year. The largest number of visitors to the National Museum during 2017 was in December when it reached 14,542 visitors. In June, it attracted the lowest number of visitors, with a total number ruling at 1,254 visitors. The Sultan Armed Forces Museum had 26,793 visitors in 2017, which is an increase of 26,793 over the previous year. It had the largest number of visitors in December when it reached 8,522, while the lowest number of visitors of the museum was in June when it plunged to just 165. There were 16,487 people who visited Natural History Museum last year, which was a significant increase from 15,011 in 2016. It had 2,442 visitors in February, which is the largest number of visitors of the museum in a month and just 33 visitors in June, which was the lowest monthly visit. The number of visitors to the Children Museum touched 27,495 in 2017, an increase from 24,883 in 2016. With 4,160, the museum had the largest number of visitors in March and with 128, it had the lowest monthly number of visitors in July. There were 7,702 visitors to the Bait Al Baranda Museum last year, which was a marginal decline from 7,690 visitors in 2016. The largest number of visitors to the museum was in April when it touched 1,445 while in May and September it declined to its lowest level to reach to just two visitors each month.

Al Saidia School museum of education had 4,991 visitors in 2017, up from 1,515 visitors in 2016. In November, it recorded the highest number of visitors of the year when it touched 1,396 and with just 20 visitors in June, it had the lowest number of monthly visitors.

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