Arab Visitors Lead the 12.61% y-o-y Rise in Tourist Arrivals in Q1 2017

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the number of tourists visiting Lebanon, in Q1 2017, rose by an annual 12.61% to 345,168 by March 2017. The rise was driven by increased number of tourists from the Arab countries, Europe, and the Americas, all of which add up to 86.72% of total tourists arriving to Lebanon.

Arab visitors constituted the largest share of visitors, grasping 38.12% of total tourists and climbing by 29.49% to 131,576 by March 2017. This increase was primarily driven by the numbers of Iraqi tourists rising by 35.64% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 57,585. Moreover, the number of tourists from Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia increased by 14.34% and 2.32%, 73.76%, and 70.45% y-o-y, to 18,981, 19,042, 8,815, and 13,612, respectively. In contrast, the number of Emirati incomers registered a yearly fall from 1,003 to 532 tourists in Q1 2017.

As for the number of European tourists which constituted 35% of total visitors, it climbed by 20.64% y-o-y to 120,812 by March 2017.  The uptick is mainly attributed to the growing numbers of French, German, and British tourists, which grew by 26.28%, 10.9% and 20.32% to reach 31,800, 15,093 and 14,495 arrivals, respectively.

In their turn, visitors from the Americas constituted 13.6% of total tourist arrivals and increased by an annual 3.49% to 46,933 by March 2017. Particularly, the number of visitors from the USA rose by 25.69% y-o-y to 28,942, followed by Canadian visitors rising by an annual 20.86% to 19,253.

On a monthly basis, March 2017 registered an annual rise of 13.21% in the total number of tourist arrivals, which stood at 129,859. As such, the number of visitors from the Arab countries ranked first, growing by 34.65% to reach 45,011. Notably, tourists from Asia also recorded the second largest increase of 19.89% to 12,519.  

Number of Tourist Arrivals in Q1

Arab Visitors Lead the 12.61% y-o-y Rise in Tourist Arrivals in Q1 2017

Source: Ministry of Tourism

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