Tourism minister: Lebanon travel ban ‘unofficially’ lifted

Lebanon’s tourism minister believes the country may be able to convince Gulf and European states to formerly lift travel bans on their citizens visiting. Michel Pharaon said that while states were not yet ready to formally lift the bans, which have had a crippling effect on Lebanon’s tourism industry, they were privately accepting that the country was now safe to travel to again. “At one point in time there was a non-official travel ban, then it became official. Now there is a non-official lift of the travel ban,” he told Executive in an interview at his Beirut office. “It is the same for some Europeans, which unofficially are lifting [the ban]. When the ambassadors are contacted they all say ‘yes, you can come’ but they still have the travel ban for the general public. This is the situation now,” he added. While Pharaon said he was working on convincing states