The number of tourists reached 229,250 visitors during the first quarter of this year, down by 16 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Arab nationals topped the list of visitors with more than 79,000 tourists, down by 19 percent. Most of them are Iraqis, followed by Egyptians.

Europeans came second with around 75,000 visitors, down by 17 percent. Most of them are French and Germans.

Visitors from Americas came third with around 33,000 tourists, down by eight percent, most of them coming from the USA and Canada. Most of these visitors are expatriates.

As for visitors from Asia, they came in the fourth place with around 24,000 tourists. Iranians represented around 19 percent of them.