Tourism 2014

“We have a cultural role to play; the festival is a form of cultural and touristic resistance which says that the country is still here,” says Hala Chahine, director of…

Shortly after the 21st edition of HORECA, Lebanon’s largest food and beverage conference, Executive sat down with Joummana Dammous Salame, Managing Director at Hospitality Services sarl to discuss HORECA, the hospitality sector…

Lebanon’s hospitality and tourism industry is in crisis management mode when it comes to dealing with its finances. As the number of tourists visiting the country has steadily declined, down…

As conditions for the hospitality sector in Lebanon remain stagnant, more and more entrepreneurs in the field are exporting their concepts to greener pastures abroad. While successful restaurant concepts have…

Strolling through the rather quiet streets of Badaro on any given afternoon, it is hard to imagine that the area was once a buzzing Beirut neighborhood with more than 12…

Michel Pharaon, a veteran of Lebanese politics, first served as minister of state in 2000. The March 14 politician may not have been hoping for the tourism portfolio, but since…

The received wisdom goes something like this: Tourism is a mainstay of the Lebanese economy, and the country, rich in history, climate and culture, could attract even more tourists if…

The first quarter of 2014 saw tourist arrivals contract by 16.5 percent year on year, to 229,000 visitors. The Ministry of Tourism is preparing a shoe-string campaign to reassure Gulf…

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…

There I stood, lost in translation in the middle of Moscow. All the signs were in Russian and none of the locals out and about on the streets spoke English.…