Selecting entries with min value through search param Trying to do something quite basic but can't seem to get it right..

I'm searching through a form, and want to select entries where the value 'pax' is equal or more than the searched value.

{% set params = {
section:    'ships',
limit:      null
} %}

{# pax #}
{% if craft.request.getParam('pax') %}
  {% set pers = craft.request.getParam('pax') %}
  {% set params = params|merge({'pax' : '&gt;= pers'}) %}
{% endif %}


Now, this doesn't seem to work. However, if I'd change the last line to:

  {% set params = params|merge({'pax' : '&gt;= 30'}) %}


It gives me excellent results. So, what am I doing wrong here? 

Much appreciated!!
You are currently passing a string '&gt;= pers' to the array. Change this to:

'&gt;= ' ~ pers


This "concatenates" the string '&gt;= ' and the value of your pers variable (converted to a string).