CHALLENGES

FACING TOURISM

COMPETITIVENESS

IN LEBANON

Mr. Jean Abboud

MEDITOUR 2014

26th November 2014, Barcelona

Tourism competitiveness factors

Figure 1: Tourism competitiveness factors

Inherited

resources

Created

resources

Supporting

resources

Destination

management

Demand

conditions

Situational

conditions

Challenges facing the inherited

resources

• Limited and insufficient percentage of

protected natural areas, cultural sites, and

number of flora and fauna species

• No sustainable preservation of intangible

cultural heritage such as registration on the

UNESCO list or equivalent registers

Recommendations for the inherited

resources

• Increase minimum by twice the percentage

of protected natural areas. Protect

additional cultural sites, flora and fauna

species within 3 years

• Register minimum 3 intangible cultural

heritage on the UNESCO list or equivalent

registers within 5 years

Challenges facing the created

resources

• High costs of operations, such as the cost

of raw ingredients and the cost of energy in

touristic establishments and sites

• High seasonality by day of the week, month

of the year and geographical situation

Recommendations for the created

resources

• Subsidize the cost of energy end

telecommunications especially for rural

touristic establishments

• Use the latest research findings to limit the

negative impacts of the seasonality, such

as “pop up” touristic infrastructure

Challenges facing the supporting

resources

• Limited infrastructure such as rail and sea

transportations, and unsufficient use of IT

• Weak collaboration with the universities for

research programs on tourism strategies

Recommendations for the supporting

resources

• Accelerate the rehabilitation of the rail

transport and the development of Jounieh

touristic port. Subsidize the development,

installation and trainings for Property

Operations Systems

• Establish a touristic research committee in

collaboration of the Lebanese university

and private universities offering tourism

diplomas

Challenges facing the demand

conditions

• Low awareness and notoriety of the

Lebanese sites and regions individually,

and unclear country image on the

international market

• Undiversified tourist market segments,

highly relying on Gulf tourists and

underestimating the potential of domestic

tourists

Recommendations for the demand

conditions

• Build a clear and unique touristic image for

Lebanon. Increase the awareness of the

Lebanese “terroires” individually

• Develop added value touristic products and

services addressed to domestic tourists

Challenges facing the situational

conditions

• Political instability, and safety and

security of visitors

• Non-competitive value for money,

specially when applying the purchasing

Power Parity index

Recommendations for the situational

conditions

• Establish a crisis prevention and a crisis

management policy

• Applicate the revenue management

techniques when pricing the touristic

products and services considering the

international competition

Challenges facing the destination

management

• Centralized tourism administration

resulting in a centralized tourism

infrastructure

• Lack in the accuracy and the

exhaustiveness of tourism statistics,

compromising the decision making

process

Recommendations for the destination

management

• Initiate a tourism administration

decentralization, able to deal with the

local challenges, needs and

opportunities

• Found the decision making process on

reliable tourism statistics and forecast, in

order to insure action’s viability

THANK YOU