Caretaker Minister of Tourism and Social Affairs, Ramzi Msharrafieh, headed a delegation to partake in the forty-seventh meeting of the Regional Committee for the Middle East of the World Tourism Organization and the inauguration of the organization’s Middle East regional office, and the Tourism Promotion Conference, at the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Tourism Organization, in which Lebanon was elected as First Vice-Chairman of the Middle East Committee of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

On the sidelines of the conference, Msharrafieh met with ranking dignitaries and discussed with them ways to bolster cooperation in order to revive the tourism sector.

Msharrafieh and the Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Hassan Nazim, signed an agreement between the two brotherly countries, Lebanon and Iraq, which provides for the activation of the tourism sector in the two countries and the exchange of experiences and tourism services.

Msharrafieh’s statement at the meeting dwelled on Lebanon’s “sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to all Arab countries for their permanent support for Lebanon and its people in all circumstances and occasions, which confirms the depth of the historic relations between Lebanon and its brotherly Arab countries.”

“I would also like to thank the World Tourism Organization for its upholding to Lebanon and the countries of the Middle East by means of technical support and global and regional programs and activities that meet the urgent needs of these countries, in light of the difficult health conditions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, and the difficult economic conditions that came in its wake. These initiatives confirm the importance of the role of the World Tourism Organization on the tourism, health, economic, social, and developmental levels,” he said.

“The tourism sector in Lebanon is one of the pillars of the national economy; one that will extract Lebanon from the difficult reality it is living through, and restore to it its leading and pivotal role on the map of regional and international tourism,” Msharrafieh stressed.

“The Lebanese government has made tremendous efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and limit its spread, and was able to achieve progress in controlling this pandemic. Amid the re-launching of tourism and the activation of the economic wheel, we are counting on the return of Arab brothers to Lebanon, to advance the country again — this country which has always been a top destination for Arab tourism, owing to the sincere brotherly ties between Lebanon and Arab countries, the human resources the country has to offer, and the historical, touristic, natural, and climatic attractions it brings to the table,” he concluded.

Source: National News Agency