Number of passengers doubles at Tripoli Port

The Port of Tripoli (POT) has witnessed a major improvement in the first nine months of 2015 compared to the same period of last year in the number of passengers traveling from the Port.

The number of passengers has doubled to reach 100,000 in the first nine months compared to 50,000 in the full year of 2014. Passengers are traveling from the POT to Turkey, where they move on to other countries as part of a mass emigration to Europe.

Around 90 percent of the passengers are Syrian nationals, according to the port’s statistics. A total of 8,000 Lebanese passengers have travelled from POT since the beginning of the year.

The high demand for travel has raised the port’s revenues by 17 percent during the first nine months, reaching around $9 million, due to this activity.

Four RO-RO ships that carry goods are also carrying passengers on a daily basis. A few years ago, only one vessel carried passengers, once a week from the port.

The number of passengers has been doubling year-on-year since 2011, when the total number of passengers was only 8,000.