Iran-Israel War Disrupts Lebanon’s Tourism Season

A billboard on the road to Beirut International Airport promoting tourism in Lebanon (AP). 
A billboard on the road to Beirut International Airport promoting tourism in Lebanon (AP). 
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Iran-Israel War Disrupts Lebanon’s Tourism Season

A billboard on the road to Beirut International Airport promoting tourism in Lebanon (AP). 
A billboard on the road to Beirut International Airport promoting tourism in Lebanon (AP). 

The outbreak of war between Iran and Israel has upended weeks of preparation aimed at delivering Lebanon’s most promising tourism season in years.

Amid the chaos affecting civil aviation across the region and the mass cancellation of flights to Beirut by most foreign carriers, uncertainty about the conflict’s duration and potential expansion to neighboring countries has led thousands of tourists to cancel their summer plans in Lebanon. The few remaining bookings are largely limited to Lebanese expatriates still holding out hope for an improvement in the situation in the coming weeks.

Official Lebanese sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that several Arab countries have evacuated the majority of their citizens from Lebanon over the past two days and continue to operate outbound flights for those who remain. The sources noted that the United States and European nations have yet to formally urge their citizens to leave the country.

Lebanon had been anticipating a lift of Gulf Cooperation Council travel restrictions, particularly after the United Arab Emirates unilaterally authorized travel to Lebanon last May. The Lebanese government had undertaken major logistical and security measures in recent weeks to create favorable conditions for the return of Arab and Gulf tourists to Beirut.

Jean Abboud, head of the Syndicate of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Lebanon, reported a surge in cancellations of airline tickets, hotel reservations, and car rentals. He said inbound travel to Lebanon had dropped by more than 60 percent, with around 50 airlines suspending flights to Beirut, leaving just four still operating.

Abboud told Asharq Al-Awsat that the longer the conflict persists, the more the tourism season is at risk. “What’s happening has paralyzed tourism both into and out of Lebanon,” he said. “At this point, I don’t believe we’ll see Arab or Gulf tourists this season. It will be limited to Lebanese expatriates.”

One of the key factors behind the wave of cancellations, Abboud added, is fear among foreign tourists that the conflict could escalate further and potentially trap them in Lebanon, preventing their return home.

Since the conflict began, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport has been operating under an emergency schedule to manage the fallout from flight cancellations by numerous Arab and international carriers. The number of arrivals to the Lebanese capital has plunged by about 75 percent compared to the period prior to the outbreak of hostilities late Thursday night.

Tourism has long served as a cornerstone of the Lebanese economy, contributing over $8 billion annually before 2011 and accounting for nearly 20 percent of the country’s GDP.

However, the sector was severely hit by the outbreak of the Syrian war, which cut off land routes from the Gulf and sharply reduced the number of Gulf tourists.

A series of suicide bombings in 2014, followed by the country’s financial and economic collapse in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, further devastated the industry, leading to widespread closures of hotels and restaurants and a near-total halt to air travel.

 

 

 

 

 



US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

The United States will keep backing Syria’s government and has no “Plan B” to working with it to unite the war‑scarred country back together, still reeling from years of civil war and wracked by new sectarian violence, US envoy Tom Barrack said on Monday.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Barrack – Washington’s ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, who is also on a short assignment in Lebanon – called last week’s Israeli strikes inside Syria “badly timed” and said they had “complicated efforts to stabilize the region.”

Barrack spoke in Beirut after more than a week of clashes in Sweida province between Druze militiamen and Sunni Bedouin tribes.

Over the weekend he brokered what he described as a limited ceasefire between Syria and Israel, aimed only at halting the fighting in Sweida. Syrian government troops have since redeployed in the area and evacuated civilians from both communities on Monday, he said.

Barrack told the AP that “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: “The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

However, he said Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”

Prior to the violence in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward full normalization of diplomatic relations.

When the latest fighting erupted, “Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,” Barrack said. “The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.”

The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address broader issues including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.

In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said “both sides did the best they can” to reach agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.

He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

Later Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X that Israel’s strikes “were the only way to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria, the brothers of our brothers the Israeli Druze”.

Katz added: “Anyone who criticizes the attacks is unaware of the facts,” he continued. It was not clear if he was responding to Barrack’s comments.

Damascus has been negotiating with the Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria to implement an agreement that would merge the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the new national army.