Gulf nationals pouring into Beirut International Airport are excited about their summer vacation plans here, matching the confidence of local officials who have been extolling the virtues of all things Lebanese in a campaign to attract tourists.
With international and domestic developments conspiring to return Beirut to the global tourist map, even the recent heat wave has failed to wilt the enthusiasm of summer tourists flocking to Lebanon.
“It’s kind of cold here,” Sayyed Hassan told The Daily Star, explaining that in his native Kuwait, temperatures were topping 50C.
Hassan, who arrived on Friday with a party of 30 family and friends, said he plans to spend two weeks here. Drawn by reports of the country’s friendly atmosphere, Hassan and three of his cohorts said they would they would spend up to $5,000 each during their stay, which will include visits to Jeita, Jounieh and the South.
“Actually, there is no limit to how much we would spend as long as we are having fun, but the same trip in Europe would cost us three times more,” he said.
Hassan appears not to be alone in his thinking, as Kuwait Airways announced last week that it expected a drop of up to 30 percent for its Western markets. “The airline plans to concentrate on the Middle East and Gulf regions,” the announcement said.
Hassan’s crowd were but a drop amid the hundreds of tourists who landed aboard three planes in a span of some ten minutes starting at 1.30pm. Travelling from Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, they were met by a jubilant crowd of close to 2,000 as well as scores of conspicuously courteous cabbies.
Bchara Zghabi, who came from Riyadh with his family of three in tow, is touring Lebanon for the first time.
“Last year we went to Istanbul, but this year we heard so much about Lebanon on satellite television that we decided to come,” Zghabi said.
Although the Lebanese government did not follow up its marketing campaign for the  February shopping festival with another one for the summer tourist season, satellite television stations such as LBCI, Future Television, NBN and others have beamed across the desert enough favorable images of the country to attract visitors like Zghabi.
And traffic in the airport’s corridors has lent credence to Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s claim as he inaugurated the airport’s western wing three weeks ago that, “Lebanon is ready to receive over a million tourists this season.”
Already, winter tourism increased by 34 percent over the previous year, from 43,612 to 58,575. This after last year saw a 13 percent increase over 2000 ­ widely attributed to the influx of Arab tourists following Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The Tourism Ministry has said it is expecting 1.4 million visitors ­ a figure that would match the number of tourists in 1974, one year before the country plunged into its bloody fifteen-year civil war.
The ministry has forecast some 600,000 tourists coming from oil-rich Gulf states, and increased incoming flights from those countries look ready to make good the prediction.
Saudi Arabian Airlines and Kuwait Airways have both increased their weekly flights to Lebanon from seven to 24, while the Dubai-based Emirates has upped its weekly runs from five to 22 ­ not to mention the numerous chartered flights.
Some 500,000 Lebanese from the diaspora are also expected to return for the summer.
Nadine Hazzam, 18, who was born in the United States and last visited Lebanon in 1994, said he was eager to visit his family here and also see the country’s progress.
“I came with my parents to visit members of our family, but we also wanted to experience the community growth that we heard so much of,” Hazzam said, adding: “The airport is so much neater from the last time my family and I visited.”
However, many Arab tourists are here to escape increased scrutiny at Western airports following Sept. 11. Earlier this month, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that visitors deemed “an elevated national security concern” would be required to undergo a three-prong procedure during their stay or risk arrest.
Some visitors to US destinations are to be fingerprinted and photographed, required to check in periodically if they stay for 30 days or longer and subjected to exit controls.
“We usually go to Europe and the US, but customs here are friendly, easy to deal with and quick and no one looks at us in a suspicious way,” Hassan said.
Nasser Fakhroo, the distribution manager for Qatar Petroleum, said security measures were “very tight” during his recent visit to the United States. “The Sept. 11 attacks certainly affect Western destinations and benefit Lebanon,” he added.
But Fakhroo also suggested that Lebanon could draw visitors regardless of the international mood.
“I come here once or twice a year and every time I see a big improvements,” he said. “Lebanon is really a mix of East and West so that it adapts to every culture. I just hope that the electricity doesn’t get cut off, but even if it does, I already bought a generator.”

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