June 22-  The Lebanon airport has increased the airport tax by 10 per cent which, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud stated, will give rise to modern advertising promotions for the country. The tax was endorsed by the cabinet on Friday.

Abboud added that the tourism ministry’s budget for 2010 had gone up to $3 million as opposed to $1 million in 2009. The new campaign would focus on Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain. Abboud made the announcement during a ceremony at the Grand Hills resort in Broummana, Mount Lebanon, to mark the beginning of this year’s tourist season.

Abboud said that it was important to have organised tourism in villages and other mountainous regions. “Mountain tourism constitutes less than three per cent of the Lebanese tourism sector while it forms 70 per cent of the sector in Cyprus,” he said.