Lebanon awaits the influx of tourists in large numbers this summer, and reports indicate the possibility of the arrival of between one million and one million and 200 thousand visitors to Lebanon.
In this context, the Ministry of Tourism figures revealed that the number of tourists coming to Lebanon reached 212,950 visitors in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 155.8% from 83,260 visitors in the first quarter of 2021 and an increase of 9.5% from 194,395 in the first quarter of the year 2020.
The figures for the first quarter of the current year also represented a decrease of 43.3% and 41.2% from 375,815 and 362,398 tourists in the first quarter of 2019 and 2018, respectively. The number of tourist arrivals reached 62,340 in January, 67,800 in February, and 82,810 in March 2022, compared to 23,560 tourists in January, 22,747 in February, and 36,953 in March 2021. This constituted an increase of 264.6% in January, 198% in February and 124% in March 2022 over the same months of the previous year.
The increase in the number of tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2022 is due to the resumption of normal activity and the lifting of closure procedures in the country, including the closure of the airport in March 2020, which was imposed by the authorities to contain the spread of the Corona virus.
It should be noted that these figures exclude Lebanese expatriates, Syrians and Palestinians coming to Lebanon. Arrivals from European countries constituted 37% of the total tourists in the first quarter of 2022, followed by arrivals from Arab countries with 33.7%, North and Latin America by 16.6%, and Asia by 4.8%, and Africa by 4.6%.
By country, arrivals from Iraq constituted 19.2% of the total tourists coming to Lebanon in the first quarter of 2022, followed by those coming from France, the United States, Egypt, Germany, Canada, Jordan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Kuwait, Italy, Brazil, Bahrain, Qatar, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.