The Secretary-General of the Federation of Tourist Syndicates in Lebanon, Jean Beiruti, revealed that the value of tourism revenues has reached 3.5 billion dollars so far. That is, it exceeded expectations, which were estimated at about 3 billion dollars. He explained that "the data indicate that the tourist season, which began in mid-May, will continue until mid-September, and possibly beyond."
Beiruti pointed out that "1 million and 200 thousand tourists visited Lebanon from mid-May until August 15, 70 percent of whom were expatriates or of Lebanese origin, while 30 percent were from various Arab and foreign nationalities."
The tourism sector in Lebanon includes about 40,000 employees, but most of them left Lebanon with the onset of the economic crisis, which prompted tourism institutions to attract another 40,000 to fill this shortfall. Since late 2019, Lebanon has been suffering from a severe economic crisis, classified by the World Bank as one of the 3 most severe crises the world has known since the mid-19th century. The crisis led to a financial collapse, an unprecedented decline in the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank, as well as a shortage of fuel, medicine, and other basic commodities.
The Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, revealed that foreign exchange reserves had fallen to 11 billion dollars, down from 30 billion before the crisis.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
