Great expectations
Five star hoteliers preparing for forecasted boost in tourism from Saudi Arabia
Five star hoteliers preparing for forecasted boost in tourism from Saudi Arabia
The rising temperatures in Beirut signify a rapidly approaching summer, typically a peak tourism season in Lebanon and one that five star hoteliers in the country are eagerly anticipating. Tourism in Lebanon has been slowly getting back on its feet over the past four years— thanks to a diversification of markets that included European and South American visitors to the country— but hospitality stakeholders expect 2019 to be the best in terms of visitor numbers to Lebanon since 2010.
The reason for this unabashed optimism largely lies in the Gulf, specifically in the lifting of the travel advisory against Lebanon by Saudi Arabia in late February. Saudi nationals had been warned against travel to Lebanon for almost seven years—although the advisory was briefly lifted in 2017 only to be reinstated following Prime Minister Hariri’s retracted resignation—and over that period there was an almost consistent decrease of visitors from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon.
Lebanon’s five star hoteliers are hoping the lifting of the travel advisory means the tide has changed and GCC nationals will be flocking back to Lebanon this summer in the same volume they did pre-2012.
Following the lifting of the travel advisory, some hotels, such as the Phoenicia Hotel, say they felt an almost immediate positive impact on their occupancy rates, according to Tracey Bolton, its cluster director of sales and marketing.
Others say the real upshot of the lifting of the travel advisory manifested a bit later in the year. “Definitely, the number of visitors from the Gulf—and specifically from KSA— has increased so far in the year,” says Gilbert Zeait, general manager of Gefinor Rotana. “The effect of the lifting of travel restrictions was felt to some extent when it first occurred in February, but we can talk of a significant impact to tourism in mid-April when there were school holidays in KSA.” Speaking for the Four Seasons, its regional vice president and general manager Ramy Sayess says 2019 has been a positive year so far, and April 2019 was the best performing month since the hotel opened in 2010.
While the holy month of Ramadan is typically a slow one for tourism from the GCC countries, early indicators—interviews for this article were conducted in mid-May—suggest that Eid el-Fitr, this year falling in the first week of June, is going to be a busy period for Lebanon’s five star hotels. Nadia Madi, director of sales and marketing at Kempinski Summerland Hotel & Resort, says the property is fully booked starting from Eid and for the remainder of June with mainly Lebanese expats, and GCC and European nationals.
Bolton says all 72 rooms in Phoenicia’s sister property, Le Vendome, are already fully booked for the Eid period, and she expects Phoenicia to be fully booked as well for the same period by the time Eid is celebrated in June. She explains that their royal and presidential suites—favored by the Saudi nationals who were visiting Lebanon before the travel advisory—are being frequently booked again. “We’ve had support from the KSA market in the past five years— we’ve been lucky that way—but it hasn’t been from the big spenders, so now the average rate is intrinsically increasing again because they have started to come back and book these big suites,” Bolton says.
Zeait says Gefinor Rotana is at 50 percent occupancy for June—already an increase when compared to the same period in 2018—but explains that GCC nationals are usually last-minute bookers, and so he expects June occupancy to increase substantially during the last week of Ramadan. Zeait also mentions that the property’s suites and two to three bedroom apartments—which are part of the hotel and serviced as