LEBANON: Exodus hits economy

BEIRUT, 16 July (IRIN) - On any normal weekend day, the streets of downtown Beirut and Achrafieh would be crowded with people and cars, but today they remain eerily empty, as café's and restaurants remain closed.

"Last week the streets were full of tourists and now there is no one," taxi driver George Rizk said. "Couldn't Hezbollah have waited till the summer season was over? How are we going to earn a living"?"

What was thought to be Lebanon's hottest tourist season to date, is rapidly turning into a nightmare and financial disaster for the cash-strapped country, as most tourists and foreign nationals have left or are about to do so.

Lebanon has been attacked by Israeli air strikes since 12 July in response to the capture of two of its soldiers by the Shi'ite Hezbollah group based in Southern Lebanon. Tel Aviv, says it will continue attacks until the soldiers are released. However, Hezbollah says they will only let them go if Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are released.

Lebanon's Ministry of Tourism had expected 1.6 million tourists to flock to Lebanon this year, good for an expected revenue of some US $2.5 billion, a more than welcome source of income for the country that is burdened by a national debt of almost $40 billion. Things looked promising, as the number of foreign entries into the country had increased by 50 percent to reach 631,000 over the first six months.

Lebanon had embraced itself to recover from the disastrous 2005 tourist season. While some 1.2 million foreign nationals entered Lebanon in the top tourist year of 2004, due to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the string of bomb attacks that followed, many tourists avoided Lebanon in 2005. According to the ministry of tourism arrivals fell by 11 percent.

According to statistics of the Tourism Ministry, most tourists to Lebanon originate from the Arab world, especially from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE, followed by Europe. Together they make up about 50 percent of all foreign arrivals.

According to an employee of the Movenpick Hotel, occupancy rate fell from almost 100 percent to some 30 percent the day Israel hit the airport. So far, no reservations had been cancelled, "but that may be because people cannot get through by phone". Other hotels in the Lebanese capital report similar figures.

However, major Lebanese tour operators, such as Tania Travel and Nakhal, had most of their organised trips through Lebanon cancelled.

Most Arab nationals fled by car or taxi to the Syrian border. According to Syrian custom officials some 16,000 foreign nationals had crossed the border into Syria on 13 July. Several thousands more followed on Friday. Ever since, however, the traffic largely stopped, as Israel bombed the main road to Damascus.

Israel continued in the following days by further bombard the airport, bridges, and all roads to Syria, while the Israeli navy sealed off Lebanon's harbours. In other words, it is currently impossible for anyone to leave Lebanon that seems increasingly under siege.

For that reason, the French embassy announced on Saturday that it will offer help to the some 12,000 French nationals currently in Lebanon. It is not "an evacuation," embassy officials stressed. People will be transported by boat or plane to Cyprus, from where they have to take care of themselves.

The UAE has arranged special flights from Damascus for those who have managed to cross the border to evacuate its citizens.

Other embassies are thinking of offering similar schemes. The UK has called on its citizens to prepare to leave and is sending ships to the country to get its national out.

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-Buck

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