Travelers walk through one of the halls of Beirut airport in January 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT – “The number of incoming visitors exceeded our expectations in December,” said Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Lebanon (ATTAL), to L’Orient Today, though the number is almost 45 percent lower compared to December 2023, according to his estimations.As the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated into a destructive war in Lebanon for two months, travel agents and tourism experts were unsure what the holiday season would look like.While unable to provide exact numbers for December 2024 yet, Abboud estimates that the number of incoming passengers was around 118,000 that month, compared to 261,557 in Dec. 2023. This number, however, remains higher than the yearly low of 40,891 in October, and 72,323 in November, both recorded as the war intensified in Lebanon and during which its national...
BEIRUT – “The number of incoming visitors exceeded our expectations in December,” said Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Lebanon (ATTAL), to L’Orient Today, though the number is almost 45 percent lower compared to December 2023, according to his estimations.As the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated into a destructive war in Lebanon for two months, travel agents and tourism experts were unsure what the holiday season would look like.While unable to provide exact numbers for December 2024 yet, Abboud estimates that the number of incoming passengers was around 118,000 that month, compared to 261,557 in Dec. 2023. This number, however, remains higher than the yearly low of 40,891 in October, and 72,323 in November, both recorded as the war intensified in Lebanon and during which its...