Number of Tourists at 923,820, Increasing by 8.3% YoY in the First Half of 2019

The recently released Ministry of Tourism report revealed an increase in the number of tourists from 853,087 by June 2018 to 923,820 by June 2019.

The composition of total tourists by June 2019 showed that tourists from Europe grasped the lion’s share at 35.82%, with Arab countries coming in second with a share of 32.16%, America with 17.75% and finally Asia with 7.47% of total tourists.  The remainder share of 6.8% is split between African, Oceanic and other countries.

The number of European tourists increased by a significant 10.3% YoY amounting to 330,928, the highest historical figure for Lebanese tourism by H1. Most notably, visitors from Arab countries surged by 21.4% YoY, totaling 297,112 by June 2019. The number of tourists from Iraq and Egypt increased significantly by 11.00% YoY to 101,637 and 5.35% YoY to 49,462, respectively. This surge is also the result of the lifting of the Saudi travel ban on Lebanon, which explains the 90.8% rise in the number of tourists from the country which hit 44,736 tourists from the KSA alone by June 2019.

The number of African tourists declined 44.1% year-on-year to reach a figure of 29,480 visitors by June. This was compensated by the inflow of new tourists from America, Asia, Europe, and Arab countries. The number of tourists from America and Asia increased by 5.5% YoY to 163,949 and 6.4% YoY to 69,036, respectively.

Total Number of Tourists in the First Half of the Year

Number of Tourists at 923,820, Increasing by 8.3% YoY in the First Half of 2019

Source: Ministry of tourism

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