FOLLOWING a year of prestige hotel openings and significant growth in arrival numbers, Lebanon is now positioning itself to attract more non-Arab visitors and aiming to promote areas outside Beirut, according to Minister of Tourism Fady Abboud.
“At the moment 40 per cent of our tourists come from the Arab world and 70 per cent stay around Beirut,” he told TTN Yearbook. “I want to see more Europeans and western visitors and also want to see people going beyond Beirut.”
He added that in 2011 the ministry will be targeting the UK, Germany and Russia and also the North African countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria.
The country also wants to attract a broader range of visitors throughout the year and in mid-January Abboud met with his opposite numbers from Turkey, Jordan and Syria to discuss co-operation between the neighbour states.
Abboud said: “We are not suitable or looking for mass tourism. At this moment we tend to attract more high earners, which is great, but it’s not enough.
“We are very, very busy during Christmas and the New Year and for a few months in the summer but we want to attract visitors during January, February and March.“
During the 1970s Lebanon was welcoming around 1.5 million visitors when countries around it, such as Cyprus, were only receiving around 60,000 and Abboud believes one way of bringing the numbers back up, particularly out of season, is by reintroducing the package deal.
“We’re trying to reintroduce the package deal, at the moment this sort of tourism makes up only about three per cent of our arrivals so we are looking to the agents for this,” he said.
Lebanon is also targeting Mice visitors with a new exhibition centre due to be built at Dbayeh.
“It will be a seaside exhibition centre and we are working with the private sector to form a proper private/public partnership and hoping to break ground in 2011 with the project expected to complete in 2014,” Abboud said. “In the meantime there is the existing conference centre.
“At the moment Lebanon has very few trade shows, though the country is well-known as a conference destination throughout the Arab world, so we are working to attract more trade shows and one of the nice things we have to offer is that, if you come to Lebanon, you will not see non-Lebanese working at the stands as we are very involved.”
Tourist numbers in 2010 were up more than 17.5 per cent on the previous year and were expected to reach two million when final figures were released. Tourism was 22 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 – five years ago this figure was around 12 per cent.
So promoting tourism is a big issue for the Lebanese government. Currently around 80 to 90 per cent of arrivals do not need a visa and Abboud said the ministry is working to improve facilities at the borders particularly with Syria where passenger terminals are to be built, again in private/public partnership.
Abboud is also courting low-cost carriers from Europe, particularly the UK, in the hope of increasing the number of flights per week and airports offering services to Beirut.
Commenting on future developments, he said: “We have projects worth around $4 billion in the pipeline and approximately a third of this is from outside the country, mainly from within the Middle East showing Lebanon’s value as an investment prospect as well.”
In fact, as well as the 26-storey Four Seasons, the Le Gray, Raouche Arjaan by Rotana and Golden Tulip Serenada, all of which opened in Beirut in 2010, Hilton is expected to launch a 162-room property this year, there is a Kempinski under construction and plans for a $100-million, 270-room Grand Hyatt in the downtown area.
The skiing village of Kfardebian, near to the major resort of Mzaar, is also becoming increasingly popular with a number of new boutique hotels and further development planned for the future.
By LIZ O’REILLY