Interview with Fadi Abboud, Minister of Tourism, Lebanon

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Preliminary figures issued by the UN world tourism organization indicated that Lebanon posted the highest growth rate in tourism arrivals in 2009 with a 39% increase from 2008.  Tourism is one of the best performing sectors in the Lebanese economy.  What is your general assessment of this sector and how does it compare to other countries in the region?

On average countries see a 5-6% growth but we are doing quite well as reflected by our growth.  Lebanon has things to offer in this region that others cannot.  For example, quality of service, geography, nightlife, cuisine, the beach, snow, ecotourism, religious tourism, and price.  All of these factors help us succeed in tourism and enhance our growth to being the best in the world.

"For 2010 we should see an increase of around 25%."

Is high growth sustainable over a long term basis?

Certainly not.  A growth of 39% every year would make our life very difficult because we are not prepared for it, especially in Beirut.  We need to increase tourism outside of Beirut and we have an NGO (Beyond Beirut) working on just that.  We are trying to attract tourists outside of Beirut because we don’t want to be known only for our nightlife because we have much more to offer.  What is unique is that only 3% of our tourism comes from packages and organized tours while the rest of people simply book their trips independently and come to Lebanon.  On average tourists in this country spend 3000 dollars per visit and this ranks among the highest in the world.  However, to attract people outside of Beirut I believe organized tours and packages will need to be offered.

Tourism contributes 23% to the country’s economy, however, the biggest challenge is that tourism is seasonal.  Is this a cause of concern for you and what can be done to address this issue?

"At this point in time I cannot say myself that tourism is an industry."

I am working on sustainable tourism for this reason to develop an institution.  In my opinion in the off-season it is easy to obtain a room outside of Beirut for a reasonable price and this is do-able. In the past we have not planned this properly because some times hotels are not open every day of the year.  We are working with hotel owners to increase their days of operation and bring them off season business.

How will you go about achieving this?

Organized packages.  Unfortunately we cannot offer cheap vacations and we are not trying to work on mass tourism.  At the same time, however, I believe we will be able to develop a market for middle-class tourism.

You mentioned that tourism is doing well because of an act of god rather than by an act of man. What are some of the major problems?

The budget for the Ministry of Tourism compared to Syria, for example, is very small.  The Syrians are spending five times what we are spending on the promotional side and this is ridiculous.  We do not have PR agencies where we should and we only go to some exhibitions when we should be going to all of them.  We need a plan and we also need to involve the private sector with the ministry.  We need a promotions board to promote the country across all domains and we are working on setting this up from the private sector and headed by the Ministry.  This is why it is an act of god rather than by man because  we haven’t been playing the game like others who spend so much money on promoting tourism, like Jordan, for example. 

What is your plan to bring the private sector in to promote tourism?

"We are forcing the government to increase our

budget and we have been successful this year in

securing 4 million dollars."

Through the promotions board we want to involve the private sector, airlines, hotel owners, and bankers so everyone is able to participate. 

Which markets would you like to develop?

This year we are working on Russia, Germany, the UK, and Spain.  Spain is conditional to a direct flight because it will be difficult to promote without it.  I think we can do wonders with the UK. 

Which aspects would you like to promote, are you looking towards mass tourism?

At this moment the problem that we are facing is a lack of conference and exhibition centers but we have applied to start developing one.  We want to promote our multilingual and multicultural we are because this makes Lebanon special.  You cannot find a church next to a mosque everywhere whilst people live in harmony.  This is a country where we have found a perfect harmony and love each other despite the civil war that we all suffered through.

You said that you succeeded in increasing your budget and are planning to launch a large promotional campaign while working with the private sector.  What can we expect from this and when do you see this happening?

The budget has not been approved yet so when and if it is approved then we will have to develop the proper campaign and target a few companies at a time.  We will use international media to do this but at the same time we don’t want to over advertise because we need to be able to properly receive the people and make sure they have the time of their life when visiting Lebanon.