Lebanon tourism minister urges an open budget for tourism investment

National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon

Avedis Guidanian, Caretaker Tourism Minister of Labanon, urged the government to allocate an open budget for investment in the tourism sector in the country, as reported by local media.

“Lebanon is not less attractive than Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, but their inbound tourist’s number is much more than that of Lebanon. The reason is, they are well aware of promoting their tourist attractions,” said Guidanian.

“What we need in Lebanon is enough budgets to promote our tourism sector and attract more tourists to our country,” he added. He was talking in a workshop held at the Economic and Social Council to discuss the bottlenecks in the tourism sector.

Baalbek Temple, Lebanon

Guidanian said that the number of tourist arrival is not having any significant change during the past eight years; however the spending by tourists in the country has changed remarkably.

“Gulf tourists are the ones who spend mostly in Lebanon and they are absent nowadays. They also stay for long periods unlike other nationalities, who come for only two or three days,” said Pierre Ashkar, President of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners in Lebanon, while talking to the media.

Ashkar said that there will be increase in the tourism activities, only when tourists from the Gulf region return to Lebanon