by Dana Halawi
BEIRUT, Jun 27 (NNN-XINHUA) – The outbreak of COVID-19 and a shortage of U.S. dollars, prompted many Lebanese people to turn to domestic destinations for holidays.
“Reservations in our establishment started early this summer, as people are hesitant to travel, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the complications of doing several PCR tests, when travelling from Lebanon to foreign destinations,” said Najla Ammouri, owner of Abdelli Terraces, a small hotel, located in Lebanon’s northern city of Batroun.
Ammouri said that, her place is fully booked until mid-Aug, despite the slight increase in rooms’ prices compared to previous years.
“We made a slight increase to our rooms’ prices to be able to raise our employees’ salaries, amid the collapse in the local currency. However, we are not profiting much, so as to encourage the Lebanese to explore new places in their beautiful country.”
Nouhad Touma, manager at Beit Jedde, a guesthouse located in Mtein, in Mount Lebanon, told Xinhua that, the U.S. dollar shortage prompted Lebanese young people to stay in the country and explore new places. “We are fully booked during the weekends in the months of July, Aug and Sept.”
For his part, Elias Lakkis, front desk agent at Mist Hotel in Ehden, in northern Lebanon, told Xinhua that his hotel employed additional people for the summer season, to be able to serve an increasing number of customers.
“The Lebanese are hesitant to travel with the spread of COVID-19 all over the world, so they are turning to local hotels, in mountainous areas during this summer,” he said.
Lakkis said that the past winter had also seen an increasing demand on rooms at his hotel, which was unusual in previous years.
Lebanon has been facing a shortage in U.S. dollars, causing a collapse to the local currency and a devaluation of the Lebanese salaries’ by around 90 percent, which reduced their purchasing power to unprecedented levels.
Moreover, the shortage in U.S. currency prompted banks to stop withdrawals from U.S. dollar accounts, while limiting withdrawals in Lebanese pound to specific amounts. This crisis has shifted people’s interest from visiting popular tourist destinations in summer, such as Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, to local places.
Ferial Abdo, a teacher whose salary does not exceed 2.5 million Lebanese pounds (152 U.S. dollars), told Xinhua that, she used to travel to islands in Turkey every summer, by paying around 500 U.S. dollars, as her salary was equivalent to around 1,650 U.S. dollars per month prior to the local currency’s collapse, but she is no longer able to travel abroad. “My friends and I have decided to go to a hotel in the north for a couple of nights. That’s the only holiday I can afford for now,” Abdo said.
Pierre Ashkar, president of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners in Lebanon, told Xinhua that, 750,000 Lebanese used to travel to nearby islands for summer vacation, but they now shifted to local destinations as their salaries lost values.
He added that, 750,000 Lebanese expats in the Gulf countries and Africa, also visit Lebanon every summer.
“We have a total of 1.5 million people approximately, visiting beaches and mountains this summer, in different areas of the country,” he said.
Ashkar added that, hotel rooms outside Beirut have been witnessing a remarkable increase in demand, as most of the big hotels in the city have closed, after being destroyed by Beirut’s blasts on Aug 4, 2020.
Ashkar noted that, demand on hotel rooms outside the city will help these establishments, in compensating some of the losses incurred in previous years, when the tourism season was sluggish.– NNN-XINHUA
