It’s hardly been a great tourist summer. According to the numbers published by the ministry of tourism, the number of tourist arrivals in July reached 126,986 compared to 188,465 in 2005. In June, arrivals were down nearly 60% from 2006 which was proving to be a bumper year until the war broke out. Looking back, growth from 2001 to the beginning of 2005 averaged 20% to 30%. The first six months of 2006 were excellent with 32% growth and 71% occupancy in Beirut before the high summer traveling season. There was not enough time to recover from the war before the string of events that kept Lebanon in the news and resulted in the worst season for 15 years. Occupancy rates were under 20% for the first six months of this year and rising to between 28-35% in August, according to Pierre Achkar, President of the Lebanese Federation of Tourism
