One million and 441 thousand tourists visited Lebanon until last August

The minister of tourism, Avedis Guidanian, revealed in a press conference on Friday the number of tourists visiting Lebanon until the end of August. He said 1,441,000 persons entered the country compared to nearly 2 million in 2010. The minister pointed to a decline by 28% in the number of incomers from Arab countries and an increase by 40.47% in the rate of European visitors, which he described as an improvement, noting a surge by 54.57% in the rate of US visitors. As for other nations, Guidanian reported progress to this effect from other countries as follows: the Netherlands, from 9,000 to 15,000 incomers (that is by 48% increase); France, from 126,000 to 135,000 incomers, and Germany from 73,000 to 80,000 visitors. As for Arab tourists: the rate of visitors from Saudi Arabia rose by 81.76% compared to last year and during the 8 months of the same period of the past year. In conclusion, Guidanian announced that the tourism industry grew by 7% from last year. (Al Diyar, An Nahar, September 21, 2019)