Lebanon’s tourism sector seeks relief to recover from lockdown

Lebanon’s tourism sector is seeking an ease in lockdown restrictions so businesses can stay afloat, amid warnings from medical experts and health officials to pay heed to India’s coronavirus catastrophe to avert a deeper crisis.

Jean Beiruti, secretary-general of the Tourism and Trade Unions Federation, said Lebanon had succeeded in gradually reducing the number of COVID-19 infections which would encourage tourism establishments to soon resume their work.

“We call on the authorities to ease measures in open places such as swimming pools, restaurants and outdoor cafes, and extend the opening times until after midnight instead of 9:30 p.m.,” he told Arab News.

Although domestic tourism did not cover all losses, it was sufficient to keep the sector going, he said. Beiruti said that Lebanon was facing challenging times because of the pandemic and a “stifling economic crisis.”

The crisis had caused 50 percent of tourism establishments to close down or suffer severely, he added, and the tourism sector constituted 20 percent of national income. “Our problem today is political. If the difficulties are resolved, the country will recover economically.

But until the matter is resolved, we depend today on domestic tourism.”

His remarks came as daily Ministry of Health statistics indicated a decrease in the number of deaths and new coronavirus infections. It will resume a total lockdown and curfew for the upcoming Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Lebanon’s total number of coronavirus infections exceed 500,000 and the death toll has reached 7,278. “Despite all the improvement

Our problem today is political. If the difficulties are resolved, the country will recover economically. But until the matter is resolved, we depend today on domestic tourism.

Jean Beiruti

in the pandemic situation in Lebanon, we are still in the fourth pandemic classification, which is a dangerous classification,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman Bizri, who heads the National Committee for the Administration of the Coronavirus Vaccine.

But the country could move to a different classification if the number of infections continued to decrease, he added.