Nayla Assaf
Daily Star staff

Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos ended his visit to Beirut earlier in the week by signing a cooperation agreement on tourism, urban planning and environmental matters.
The Brotherly Association and Cooperation Agreement, which was also ratified by Beirut Mayor Abdel-Monem Aris, was inked Monday in Beirut Central District after Avramopoulos and nine members from the municipality of Athens visited politicians and clerics including President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Interior Minister Elias Murr and Elias Aoude, the Orthodox archbishop of Beirut.
While Aris did not provide exact details regarding cooperation between the two cities, he said that as an initial step, Beirut will try to learn from Athens’ experience as one of the world’s most popular tourist hotspots by having travel agencies organize joint tours. He said cultural exchanges will also be boosted through a “Lebanese week” to be held in Athens.
This agreement was based on a previous 1997 understanding which, according to Aris, “remained ink on paper,” and included cooperation in urban planning, building regulations, resolving environmental problems and traffic management ­ a major problem which Athens succeeded in curbing.
“Greece depends heavily on tourism, with an average of 12 million tourists per year,” Aris said. “We would like Greece to help us put Lebanon on the itinerary of some of those tourists visiting Athens and the Greek islands,” he added.
According to him, Lebanon has received a little over 1 million tourists this year.
“But we hope to boost this industry and receive at least as many visitors as the number of the local population,” he added.
For his part, Avramopoulos, making his fourth visit to Lebanon, expressed admiration for the reconstruction of the city’s downtown core.
“In time, Beirut will become one of the most dynamic financial and touristic capitals on the Mediterranean,” he said.
He added that the agreement will help boost development efforts in both cities, among them efforts to curb social problems, unemployment, and increase security and environmental protection.
“Athens will serve as Beirut’s gate to the European Union while you will be our gate to that area (the Middle East),” he said.
Avramopoulos said Athens will help Beirut in “matters that it has excelled in,” namely tourism and traffic management, while it will learn from “the impressive reconstruction of Beirut.”

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