Lebanon tourism to be hit hard during Eid

Dubai: Lebanon’s tourism season will be hit hard this Eid holiday as Gulf governments warn their citizens to leave the country immediately, leading to a loss of millions of dollars in tourism revenue, industry analysts say.

“The recent political problems including kidnappings and threats from militant groups will have a disastrous effect on tourism to Lebanon over the EID period. It would not surprise me if occupancy levels dropped by more than half,” said Peter Goddard, Managing Director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

Lebanon depends heavily on GCC tourists, especially during summer and Eid. However, UAE, Saudi, Qatar and Kuwait have urged their citizens to leave immediately.

Over 1.2 million tourists from the GCC flocked to Lebanon last year, according to Ghassan Aridi, chief executive of Alpha Tours.

Lebanon lost about 500,000 tourists who usually come by land transport from Jordan or the Gulf, he added.

“Although visitors from the Gulf states represents only 7 per cent of total inbound tourists, they represent about 25 per cent of the overall spending by foreign tourists,” according to Fadi Abboud, Lebanese Tourism Minister.

That pushes up the per capita spending by foreign tourists to $4,000 - which is one of the highest in the world.

“The ministry of tourism is making a huge effort to promote Lebanon as a destination but the security situation overshadows this work,” Aridi noted.

Earlier in June the security situation that prompted the UAE to issue a travel ban by Gulf states.

At the time, Beirut showed the largest decline in occupancy year on year in the MENA region, according to the Ernst & Young Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey released in June 2012.

Its hotel occupancy drop of 6 percent was attributed to the political developments in Syria.

“One can attribute this drop to be the result of the ‘contagion effect,’ and that country stability has become a key consideration for travelers coming to the MENA region. The declines in occupancy in Beirut hotels can be expected to continue as long as the situation in the immediate region surrounding it remains difficult,” Yousef Wahbah, MENA Head of Transaction Real Estate at Ernst & Young Middle East, said in an earlier interview with Gulf News.