Lebanon: Improving hope of recovery for tourism sector

New information and statistics on tourism indexes in Lebanon show this sector is flourishing and approaches are moving from disappointment toward hope and recovery.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, after 9 months of disappointing situation in tourism sector in Lebanon due to beginning of the war in Gaza and its spread to southern borders of Lebanon and the subsequent stagnation in different economic sectors including tourism, now Lebanon witnesses remarkable increase of tourists and travelers to this country on the occasion of Eid-al-Adha so that there is an extensive demand for booking art concerts in the summer and hopes for development of tourism activities and revival of the positive growth path of GDP have increased.

In this regard, unlike the concerns that were released earlier this month about the imminent expansion of the Zionist regime’s attacks on other areas of Lebanon, Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, announced that the average daily arrival of passengers and tourists to Beirut through the Rafic Hariri International Airport has increased to 14 thousand people and this number is still growing continuously.

Also, Head of travel and tourism offices syndicate in Lebanon, Jean Abboud, announced that Israel’s threats about a possible attack in the middle of this month had negative consequences but indexes of booking places and concerts at 90-95% show positive indexes in this regard.

It is notable that according to the patterns obtained in the last two years, the tourism sector in Lebanon with a flow of more than 5 billion dollars per year is the second important source after domestic remittances by immigrants and workers abroad with a value of about 7 billion dollars.