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.
