Lebanon back on track as top travel destination

Beirut: Just a week after feuding Lebanese leaders sealed a political deal to end 18 months of conflict, restaurants have re-opened, hotel bookings have soared and tourists have replaced gunmen on the streets of Beirut.

"The deal has had an excellent impact. We've had a flood of reservations and we're expecting a very good season," said Nizar Alouf, a member of the Lebanese Hotel Owners Association.

It took months of negotiations - punctuated by bouts of violence - to install a new president and form a government, but record time for Lebanon to regain its standing as a top tourist spot.

Now where an opposition tent city occupied large squares, paralysing central Beirut and turning it into a ghost town, restaurants are bustling, open-air concerts are being held and gridlock traffic is back.

"It's good to be back" and "It finally feels like people are living" are common utterances among the droves of Lebanese and tourists crowding the Parisian-style pavement cafés.

Tourism Minister Joseph Sarkis said he expected between 1.3 million to 1.6 million visitors to Lebanon this year compared to around one million in 2007 and 2006 - violent years plagued by political assassinations, bombings and a war with Israel.

Stability

"After the [presidential] election, things are much better regarding tourism activity this summer... which is due to the stability in the coming time," Sarkis said.

President Michel Sul-aiman was elected last month after the seat remained vacant since November, as part of a political crisis between the US-backed government and the opposition, led by Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Sulaiman's election was part of a package deal agreed upon by the bitter rivals in Doha, leading the opposition to remove its encampment in central Beirut after it was guaranteed veto power in the new government.

Tourism accounted for about a fifth of Lebanon's gross domestic product before the industry was destroyed by the 1975-90 civil war. Industry experts say the sector could grow to form up to 12 per cent of the economy were Lebanon to enjoy a protracted period of calm.

While Lebanese are cautious about whether the new political agreement will last for long, tourists are thronging to the country, judging by hotel bookings and aeroplane reservations.

"Reservations have picked up very fast... once we had the deal we covered our loss of 10 per cent and gained 20 per cent of bookings in flights to Lebanon," said Nizar Khoury, head of commercial at Lebanon's flagship Middle East Airlines.

Khoury said he expected a 20 per cent increase in passengers to Lebanon from last year's 450,000 to 500,000.

"The reservations are picking up day by day, so it could even be 30 to 40 per cent up," he said. "There was some hesitation from Europe and North America, but now we're seeing a lot of reservations from [there]."

Travel advisory

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, whose citizens make up bulk of Lebanon's tourists, had urged their nationals to refrain from travelling to the liberal Mediterranean country at the height of the crisis. But Khoury said plane reservations from those countries were picking up fast too.

Lebanon, whose economy is expected to grow more than three per cent this year because of the deal, is one of the most popular destinations in the Middle East for Arabs seeking its relaxed atmosphere, sandy beaches and mild weather.

"As of today, we've seen a 30 per cent increase in hotel bookings from 2007 and we expect that this will increase day by day," said the Lebanese Hotel Owners Association's Alouf who is also the general manager of the Hotel Riviera in Beirut.