São Paulo – The conflicts in Syria resulted in the tourist flow to Lebanon dropping 27% in July this year, in comparison with the same period last year, stated Lebanese Tourism minister Fadi Abboud. Syrian helicopters have already invaded the Lebanese territory seeking the opposition to the Bashar Al Assad regime. Apart from that, Lebanon is a destination for many Syrian refugees.
According to Abboud, in the first six months of this year, the country received 6.5% fewer tourists than from January to June 2012, but the situation worsened last month. “In July, the fall was even greater, 27%. The situation is truly hard. But it is not catastrophic,” said the minister, according to news agency Reuters.
The drop was even greater as against the previous year as in 2012 the country had already not received the same number of visitors as in 2012, prior to the start of the conflict in Syria. Last year, 1.5 million people visited Lebanon. In 2010 the country had received 2 million foreigners.
According to Abboud, tourism has already answered to as much as 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Lebanon, but the conflict on the other side of the border has resulted in a drop to no more than 10% in the summer months. As a result, the tourism-related economy has also stopped generating revenues.
Change in profile
According to Abboud, up to last year the main tourists in Lebanon were those living in the Gulf, like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but their profile has changed this year. The number of Jordanians, Iraqis, Egyptians and even wealthy Syrians who left their countries to stay at the luxury hotels in Syria has increased. “Some 20% of the business now comes from Syrians,” he said.
The profile of tourists has changed as visitors from the Gulf stopped visiting Lebanon this year. “We are happy without the multimillionaires. We must change our mentality,” said Abboud, regarding the visitors from the Gulf. Some countries in the region placed restrictions to travels by their citizens to Lebanon after a wave of kidnapping in 2012. Up to then, the local tourism industry was targeted at the visitors from the Gulf.
*Translated by Mark Ament
