Lebanon’s tourism sector may have achieved record-high numbers in 2009, but still has a long way to go before it achieves its full growth potential. The long years of civil war devastated infrastructure and the tourism industry was left with outdated laws and little government investment. Experts say that authorities have a lot to do in order to better promote the country and make it tourism-friendly. The major issue facing the tourism industry is the security problems and political instability that have reigned over the country the last few years. In this climate, industry players such as hotels, restaurants and even the tourism ministry can do little but sit and hope for the situation to remain at least as calm as it was this year, when more than 1.4 million tourists arrived in the first nine months, despite the parliamentary elections and a four month delay to the government formation.
