Project Supports Tourism Promotion Efforts in Lebanon

June 26, 2014

U.S. Ambassador David Hale and the Lebanese Minister of Tourism Michel Pharaon recently launched “Travel Lebanon” to promote domestic tourism in Lebanon.

For the first time in Lebanon, businesses, cooperatives, nongovernmental organizations, municipalities, and other stakeholders active in rural tourism gathered for the Travel Lebanon festival, a division of the Beirut Garden Show, to promote rural tourism in the country.

Hale emphasized the important role that the tourism and hospitality sectors play within the national economy, saying, “Today, we celebrate our joint efforts to highlight the very best of what Lebanon offers—to both the tourist and the investor. I want to thank the Lebanese Minister of Tourism, H. E. Michel Pharaon, for recognizing that tourism matters to people, the economy, and the growth and prosperity of this nation. I encourage Lebanese to tour their own country this year and see the sites that have inspired so many foreign visitors to your land.”

The Travel Lebanon initiative is the outcome of an agreement between USAID’s Lebanon Industry Value Chain Development (LIVCD) project and Hospitality Services. LIVCD works with stakeholders in rural tourism to increase the importance rural tourism as a means of generating income for the rural population. During the Travel Lebanon festival, Hospitality Services announced the launch of Lebanontraveler.com, a website that aims to be a reference for rural destinations for both Lebanese and foreign visitors.