Top > Business > 2006 > August > 2006-08-16

Tourism in the Middle East

When will tourism return to normal in both Israel and Lebanon? The damage to Israeli infrastructure was confined to northern communities, but these communities are spread out over a wide area. Some of the sites struck by Hizballah missiles were located in the Galilee panhandle, which has many tourist sites and hotels. As for Lebanon, that country?s infrastructure was damaged all over. Repairs to Beirut?s international airport have allowed for humanitarian aid to fly in, though an outbreak of fresh hostilities could cost the airport more money.

Israel has often been a ?playground? for evangelical Christians and Jews from all over the world, and so its tourist season may pick up as the High Holidays of the Jewish religious calendar approach. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were affected by the war with Hizballah, but the cessation of hostilities will likely see these pilgrimages continue unabated once again. Venturing back to Lebanon, that country has been an Arab playground, a semi-democratic oasis on the Mediterranean Sea. There are no shortage of well-off Arab donors who will contribute to the rebuilding of Lebanon.

Any discussion of the resurgence of the tourism industry in the Middle East must take into account that the cease-fire is just a cease-fire, and a fragile one at that. Also, tensions with Iran over its nuclear program, and a spill-over of hostilities from a full-fledged Iraqi civil war, could also spell doom for the remainder of the 2006 tourism season in Israel and Lebanon.