BEIRUT: Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud called upon Jordanian tourists to travel by air to Lebanon instead of ground transport, saying that the price of a round ticket between Beirut and Jordan stands at only $206, which is considered to be low especially with the cancellation of the $80 tax imposed by the airports of the two countries.

Many Jordanians usually travel by buses and cars to Lebanon via Syria during the tourist season, but the Syrian turmoil has prevented a large number of Jordanians from visiting Lebanon.

Abboud said that 600,000 tourists used to visit Lebanon by land but the regional events led to the drop of this number, prompting the ministry to cooperate with MEA to start low-cost flights between Amman and Beirut.

Abboud’s remarks came during a lunch organized by the Tourism Ministry to honor the Arab media at Saint Georges Hotel in Beirut.

Abboud assured that the security situation in Lebanon is better than the situation in neighboring countries.

For his part, head of the hotels association Pierre Ashkar said that the formation of the government had a positive impact on reservations. “Reservations in Beirut hotels now stand at 95 percent despite the issuance of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment,” he said.

Ashkar added that occupancy rate in Lebanon has only reached 70 percent because most visitors to the area usually come by land. “We hope that the media focuses on the security prevailing in Lebanon nowadays in order to support our tourism industry,” he said.