Lebanon’s hospitality sector: resilience amid uncertainty

Problems of overtourism this year have shaken several high-profile destinations around the Mediterranean basin – long the world’s most tourism-intense area. Protests against urban overcrowding with under-regulated short-term accommodation models in Barcelona have made global headlines. In Spain, Italy, (two of the top ten global rankers by international tourist arrivals) and other Mediterranean countries that attract holiday makers by the mega-millions, administrations have been introducing laws and regulations attempting to control the so-called Airbnb market as well as daily visitor flows to tourism hotspots more effectively. In this fine summer, however, overtourism and protests against it, makes for one problem that Lebanon doesn’t have. Instead, the summer of ‘24 appears ripe for the record books as having witnessed the most twisted tourism sector fortunes and shakeups during a single key season. The reason for the hospitality sector’s economically harmful rollercoaster is the changing perceptions of war risk and outbursts of