The industry has contributed millions of dollars to the economy for the same year, with visitors from 166 countries spending $203 million on lodging, up substantially from $87 million in 2008, figures released by the Ministry of Tourism showed.

Total nights spent by the visitors also rose to 1.9 million nights, up 35 percent from 2008.

Arab nationals, including Lebanese citizens, constituted 73 percent of total clients and accounted to 70 percent of total nights spent at mentioned facilities.

The number of Lebanese clients alone reached 171,973 constituting 24 percent of the total figure, followed by Saudi clients (95,022 or 12.3 percent of the total), and Jordanians (60,746 visitors or eight percent of the total).

Nights spent by visitors from Lebanon accounted to 16.7 percent of the total number of nights spent, down 21.3 percent from 2008, followed by clients from Saudi Arabia at 12.6 percent, and Jordan at 6.5 percent, the figures revealed.