Lebanon hopes for stability so foreigners return

Jihane Shkar, general manager at the Albergo Hotel in Beirut, said her 33-suite hotel was luckier than most, with 70 percent of the rooms occupied during Eid. But instead of staying for a week like they had in the past, many of her guests were in Lebanon for only three or four days, and some canceled at the last minute, she said.

Ghandour said the ministry is trying to work with banks and small tourism businesses to help them stay afloat. A program that began in the summer allowing visitors from some countries, including the United States, to enter the country without a visa will continue, and plans to promote Lebanon at international travel conferences are in the works.

She predicted that tourism will return to prewar levels by 2008 — if the country rebuilds and remains stable.

“Tourism is coming back slowly,” she said. “If there is some silence, it would help us a lot.”

But stability is not a guarantee in Lebanon, where fears of political unrest pervade. Beirut has witnessed a series of minor attacks over the past few weeks, including a grenade fired at a downtown building that houses a dance club. The explosion, which was near U.N. offices, injured six people, broke windows and damaged cars.

Many people believe the attacks had political or sectarian overtones, but no suspects have been publicly named.

The unease has some international tour operators discontinuing trips to Lebanon until the situation is safer.

Amr Abdel-Ghaffar, of the U.N. World Tourism Organization in Madrid, said that, based on past experience, he believes Lebanon can recover.

“There is a resilience to bounce back. This is our experience with tourism in not just in Lebanon but the whole Middle East,” he said.

But at the Riviera Yacht Club on the Beirut coast, which has just a scattering of diners on a recent sunny afternoon, general manager Walid Noshie wasn’t optimistic about the near future.

“I was making 40 percent more business this year, and then they started this stupid war and the businesses is bad,” he said. “We count on tourism. We count on stability. Tourism and instability don’t work together.”

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