Lebanon received 53,452 tourists in April 2002, a 12 percent decrease in traffic compared with the same month in 2001 and 11 percent lower than the month before. The Ministry of Tourism attributed the slowdown to the closing of the Live Lebanon 2002 Music Festival.
Some 38.6 percent of tourists that entered Lebanon between January and April 2002 came from Arab countries, 29.2 percent haled from Asian states, 10.3 percent from North America, 3.1 percent from Oceania and 2.2 percent from Africa.
Lebanon received approximately 850,000 tourists in 2001, a 20 percent increase in visitors compared to 2000. Lebanon’s tourism sector contributed to five percent of the country's GDP in 2000, compared to 22 percent before the civil war, which lasted between 1975 and 1990. Before the war, some 1.25 million tourists would visit Lebanon annually. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
