Arab visitors are back

January sees 22 percent rise in Arab vacationers, total tourist number down by two percent y-o-y

The Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud said that the number of Arab visitors to Lebanon during January grew by around 22 percent compared to their number during the same period in 2011.

A total of around 95,800 tourists arrived in January 2012, of which 43,400 were Arabs. Tourists from Saudi Arabia accounted for around 27 percent of Arab tourists during the month.

The total number of tourists in January had in fact fallen by around two percent from the total number of visitors in January 2011.

Abboud said that the MoT’s promotion campaign gave a boost to tourist numbers. The minister however complained that the MoT’s allocation in the 2012 budget plan is insufficient to cover the funds needed to vitalize the sector.

Lebanon saw a steep decline in the number of incoming tourists during 2011 with a 24 percent drop compared to the previous year. Tourist arrivals to the country stood at around 1.65 million at end 2011. Arab tourists accounted for 35 percent of total visitors in 2011, but their number was down by 22.5 percent compared to 2010.