Newswise — As a result of the recent events, the Lebanese tourist industry has sustained heavy damage in what had promised to be a peak year for incoming tourism to Lebanon. This is the evaluation of Dr. Yoel Mansfeld, Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and of the Research Center for Tourism at the University of Haifa. Tourism in Lebanon increased by 37% in the first quarter of 2006 and continued to grow in subsequent months. This achievement will not be possible to sustain mainly because of the damage to Lebanon's security image in the eyes of potential tourists.
Dr. Mansfeld emphasizes that despite this, Lebanon's network of tourist lodgings and attractions have not been a target of Israeli strikes and thus, at least in this regard, the country will not require a long rehabilitation. The main infrastructures that have been damaged are the highway network and the traffic arteries linking southern Lebanon to Beirut. His assessment is that these infrastructures will be quickly repaired with monetary assistance from wealthy Arab states. In the mid term and long term, if quiet prevails in the region and among the various factions in the country, an impressive recovery may be foreseen. Experience teaches that Lebanese tourism will revive and will return to growth, mainly because in recent years it has come from the oil-producing states of the Persian Gulf. This tourism is less sensitive to the country's security image compared with European and North American tourism and, together with this, its purchasing power is great.
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