Calling all tourists – Picking up the pieces

After an outstanding first half of 2006 and a catastrophic second, any recovery for the tourist industry is once again at the mercy of political stability. The last two years have hardly been a smooth ride for those working in Lebanon’s beleaguered tourist industry. Beset by high-profile assassinations, troop withdrawals, car bombs, an under-funded government ministry and now a devastating war, they can largely be forgiven for being gloomy about the prospects for the coming year. As is always the case in Lebanon, the health of the tourist industry depends on the country’s stability: something which is consistently impossible to guarantee. But the continued importance of the sector to the national economy is vital: it accounts for a double-digit percentage of GDP, provides hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, and has significant knock-on effects across some of Lebanon’s other core industries like construction, real estate and retail. If