While, economists tend to measure tourism in visitor numbers, employment and/or contribution to GDP, an equally important gauge is the level of infrastructure development and the intensity of tourism “hotspots” (full of enthusiastic tour guides corralling tours through the nation’s must see sites). Theses abound at the pyramids, the Acropolis, St. Mark’s Square, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, but apart from a few weary public servants pointing to Roman columns at Baalbek, this level of tourist development has yet to be seen in Lebanon. The BCD may be crowded night after night, but the continued total administrative indifference to emergency access needs and non-implementation of regulatory codes (which the ministry of tourism proclaimed only a few months ago would “absolutely be enforced before the summer”) in itself tells a story about the current art of managing tourism development. But even the BCD still doesn’t radiate the air of a
