Fixing Tourism In Lebanon

The Miqati government seems genuinely panicked about Lebanon’s battered summer season. They are considering everything from new roads, new airports (woohoo) to food inspections and visa waivers to address that..

The problems unfortunately are bigger than their proposed solutions. The unrest in Syria is indeed taking a toll (many tourists come to Lebanon via Syria while others visit Lebanon as part of a Levant package that includes Syria and Jordan), but a simple look at the other issues facing our hotels and services sector is sobering:

• Diminishing desirability of the country due to failing infrastructure. Heavy traffic, electricity outages, costly telecommunications and the world’s slowest internet connection all add up to repulse would-be-tourists
• War prospects with Israel could be low, but people have been burned before.
• Potential fallout from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in its indictment of Hezbollah members.
• The big inconvenience of having Ramadan fall squarely in the middle of Summer

Lebanon has a lot of good things going for it. But the problems are serious and they can’t be resolved by short term measures. Some of the issues (like unrest in Syria and Ramadan) are beyond our control. But the rest need ambitious and long-term thinking