Tourist drought hits the Middle East

One of the common features that can be seen in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon, and perhaps also Syria to a large extent, is that tourism is viewed as a major resource for the national economy. Another common feature of these countries is the fact that they are experiencing tremors, or rather political and security earthquakes, which means that tourists have fled and there is now a drought in the tourism market; a sector where security is considered an essential requirement rather than a complimentary condition. Last week was a wretched one for tourists and tourism inside Lebanon, and even outside of it for some Lebanese. After the unrest in Tripoli and Beirut, the imprisonment of an Islamic activist hailing from Tripoli, the death of a Sunni sheikh, and what was reported about a Qatari national being arrested in the midst of the security tensions there, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all issued warnings to their citizens about the danger of the security situation in Lebanon, which constitutes a painful blow to the Lebanese tourism market as we enter the summer. Furthermore, there was the kidnapping of what has been described as a convoy of Lebanese Shia pilgrims, returning - with their families - from Iraq via Syrian territory. Groups belonging to the Syrian resistance against the oppressive al-Assad regime were accused of being behind the incident, especially after the kidnappers, fortunately, released the women and children, allegedly keeping the men in order to conduct prisoner exchanges for detainees being held inside al-Assad's prisons. Yet leaders of the Free Syrian Army [FSA] denied that they were behind the incident. God only knows the truth of the matter in light of this thick fog of chaos, and the ugly international negligence when it comes to upholding the rights of Syria. Shortly after these events, the official Lebanese news agency reported that three Lebanese women had been killed, and others injured, when a roadside bomb struck a bus carrying Shia visitors from Lebanon in Iraq. Away from the political aspect of these events, we must be aware that there is another major catastrophe to add to the list of disasters that have taken place during this difficult period. Following the outbreak of sectarian and divisive trends, the boom in the market of trading politics with religion, and international and regional interference, we come now to an economic crisis that will remain with us for a long time, until the field of tourism truly recovers. The Lebanese Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud earlier told reporters that Lebanon had lost around 350,000 tourists who came via land crossings, adding - in a separate statement - that the tourism sector contributes around 20 percent of Lebanon's GDP. This was before the events in Tripoli and Beirut, and the events regarding the Lebanese pilgrims in Iraq and Syria. In Egypt, which is standing on the brink of a major economic crisis, tourism pumps tens of billions into the veins of the Egyptian economy, employing a large proportion of the Egyptian workforce. In fact, revenue from tourism constitutes one of the most important sources of national income. Yet revenues from tourism have decreased from $12.5 billion in 2010 to $8.8 billion in 2011, according to official figures. This is just a passing glance at facts that can be easily missed in the bustle of politics and the media, although these facts will have a profound and real impact on the fate of many communities and families who live off the tourism sector. In the current state of hustle and bustle, the cries of the people are being drowned out. From: Elbawaba