Lebanon sees high reservation rates for the festive period, 32 percent of visitors are Arab

Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourist Agents in Lebanon revealed that the movement of passengers coming to Lebanon through Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport may exceed 400,000 passengers this April, announcing that 32 percent of them are Arab tourists from Jordan and Iraq, stating that "this is a very good percentage."   

In a statement, he said that the high rate of bookings for the holidays will continue during April, stressing that it will extend until after Labor Day on the first of May.  

He believed that the coincidence of the holidays with each other this year, starting with Easter among the Christian denominations that follow the Western and Eastern calendars, in addition to Eid al-Fitr and then Labor Day, constituted a positive factor that encouraged people to come to Lebanon to stay for a while. 

He said that on this basis, "we see a very active movement in the airport's movement, as more than 12,000 passengers arrive in Lebanon from all destinations, including the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and London."  

He considered that "these long holidays formed an incentive for expatriates who live in faraway countries such as Canada and America to visit Lebanon, as it was unlikely that they would travel all this distance to spend two or three days, but in light of this long vacation, they may visit Lebanon for a period ranging between 10 and 15 days."  

Abboud pointed out that the heavy traffic was expected, and he hoped that things would proceed properly along the line of the Saudi-Iranian agreement, as the "dream" would be completed with the return of Gulf and Saudi tourists to Lebanon, adding that this is a very positive indicator for the Lebanese tourism sector.