Lebanon’s domestic tourism to set sail this summer

Lebanon’s domestic tourism to set sail this summer

BEIRUT: A decade ago, Lebanon's tourism industry fed $9.5 billion into the country's GDP - figures the cash-strapped government can only dream of now. But as regional instability kicked on with conflicts blighting Lebanon's neighbors for the past 10 years, by 2018 the sums were looking worse as the figure fell to $3.5 billion, or around 5 percent of GDP. From then the picture blackened and for the country's proud export and significant cog in the economic wheel, the tumultuous events of the last 19 months have chastised the industry. When the popular uprising of October 2019 brought the country to a standstill, it sounded the death knell for an already wobbling economy and crumbled the value of the Lebanese pound, which has since fallen to 85 percent of its worth against the US dollar. As the currency sank so too has Lebanon's stability and along with the financial cost of the coronavirus pandemic, the country's famed hospitality establishments have been gathering dust and void of visitors. Tourists tempted to spend a summer in Lebanon now have to weigh up whether taking advantage of a weak Lebanese pound is worth risking the growing civil and political strife as food, drug,