Pierre Achkar

Year after year, hotelier Pierre Achkar has been the voice highlighting the concerns, needs and demands of local hotel operators and their occasional ideas for new strategies to market destination Lebanon. Executive visited the president of the Association of Hotel Owners at his office in his Printania Palace hotel in Broumana to find out where brighter spells prevail in the tourism gloom of 2013. We would like to understand the positive things, if any, that are happening in the Lebanese hotel industry this year. A hotel is an operation and a real estate investment. The only positive thing [at this time] is that the real estate is retaining its value. The property gains about 5 to 6 percent value each year. This is the minimum added value and the only positive thing that you see financially. The other factor to note is that the airports in Syria are closed and