BEIRUT, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian on Tuesday expressed hopes for attracting more tourists to Lebanon in July and August despite recent security incidents in Mount Lebanon.
"Tourists have fears about what has happened in Mount Lebanon earlier this month. We hope to be able to overcome this challenge with the cooperation between President Michel Aoun, prime minister and house speaker," Guidanian was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.
Earlier this month, the convoy of Minister of State for the Displaced Saleh Gharib came under attack while he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun, which killed two of his guards.
But if the security situation remains stable for the rest of this year, Lebanon will still be able to break the number of tourists' arrivals, said Guidanian.
Guidanian's remarks came after his meeting with Aoun to berief the president on the latest developments in the tourism sector.
According to the minister, Lebanon witnessed an increase of 100 percent in the number of Saudi tourists in the first half of 2019, while tourists from Egypt and Kuwait increased by 60 percent and 28 percent respectively.
"The number of European tourists also increased remarkably and Russian tourists went up 127 percent," he said, adding 100,000 European tourists can contribute 100 million U.S. dollars to the state treasury.
