Lebanon’s touristic sector progressed to reach 1.18M tourists by September 2015, its highest level in 3 years. According to the Ministry of Tourism, the number of incomers by September 2015 surged by 16.03% from 1.02M recorded by September 2014.
The number of Arab tourists, constituting 31.31% of the total, displayed a yearly increase of 12.55%, to record 370,030 by September 2015. As for Iraqi incomers, their share was the largest among Arab tourists at 39%, and increasing by an annual 11.68% to 144,347 over the same period. Worth mentioning that a large part of Iraqi tourists are actually refugees that are granted a tourist visa. The number of UAE and Saudi visitors registered the most distinct increases going from 34,804 to 38,478 and from 5,228 to 6,664, respectively. The number of Kuwaitis also progressed by 10.18% annually to 26,506 by September 2015.
The number of European visitors, grasping 33.37% of the total, augmented by 14.34% y-o-y, to reach 394,330. French tourists, grasping the largest share of European tourists at 27%, went up by a yearly 12.85% to 105,811. The number of incomers from Turkey, the United Kingdom and Germany also saw respective improvements of 41.48%, 13.80% and 11.91% y-o-y to 15,778, 43,298 and 59,878 during the first 9 months of the year.
As for American travelers, accounting for the third major portion of the total at 18.08%, their number reached 213,624 in the first 9 months of 2015, an 18.08% y-o-y increase from the same period last year.
In September alone, the number of tourists surged by 12.04% y-o-y to 136,050 despite the ongoing demonstrations and political unrest during the month. The number of Arab, European, and American tourists all grew by 5.53%, 11.77%, and 31.28% to 44,911, 42,176 and 23,224, respectively compared to the same month last year.
Number of Tourists By September
Source: Ministry of Tourism