Lebanon's record 2009 tourism exceeds pre-Civil War figures

Nearly 2 million tourists visited Lebanon in 2009, a record that exceeds even the glamorous years before the Civil War when Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East. In figures released to the Associated Press on Tuesday, the Tourism Ministry said 1,851,081 tourists visited Lebanon in 2009, a 39 percent increase from the year before. The previous record was 1.4 million tourists in 1974 – just before the disastrous 1975-90 Civil War broke out.

Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud estimated the country’s annual income from tourism at up to $7 billion, or about 20 percent of gross domestic product.

The booming tourism sector is the latest sign of progress in Lebanon, a country that had become notorious for its years of kidnappings, car bombs and political assassinations. But Lebanon has recently seen greater stability, drawing once-leery foreigners to its snowcapped mountains and stunning Mediterranean seaside.

During the Civil War, tourists simply stopped coming to Lebanon, scared off by the reports of Westerners being snatched off the streets of Beirut. A thriving tourism industry that lured Hollywood stars to the Middle East all but dried up.

The industry was just starting to recover some of its luster when Lebanon’s billionaire former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the power behind the multi-billion-dollar postwar reconstruction, was assassinated in 2005 in a massive bombing in Beirut.

Then, in July 2006, Israel waged a devastating 34-day war in against Lebanon in which 1,200 Lebanese were killed and billions of dollars worth of infrastructure destroyed. Thousands of tourists and vacationing Lebanese expatriates were evacuated from the country because of the fighting.

And in 2008, clashes erupted between opposition and pro-government gunmen in Beirut and the Chouf after the government moved to curb Hizbullah’s military communications network. More than 80 people were killed in the violence that followed.

But Lebanon has seen greater stability recently and formed a unity government last year. A key recommendation by The New York Times, which named Beirut as the top place to visit in 2009, helped boost the country’s image.

– AP