Lebanon’s Ski Tourism Under Threat

Lebanon’s Ski Tourism Under Threat Due To Israeli Bombing

Although a minor issue compared to the loss of life, Lebanon’s hopes of a major boost to its ski tourism this winter may have been completely dashed by Israel’s retaliation for terrorist attacks over its borders.

Lebanon’s ski industry, which began nearly a century ago, has been expanding rapidly over the past decade to the extend that the UK’s leading ski tour operator, Crystal, had recently added the country’s top resort of Faraya to its 2006-7 season brochure.

Ironically the country’s five ski areas had indirectly benefited from the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York as Arabs, disgruntled with the ensuring additional suspicion and security checks when travelling to ski in the Alps or Rockies, had opted for the ‘local’ ski areas an hour from Beirut. At the same time the ‘peace dividend’ had led to a gradual build up of confidence from Western skiers travelling to Lebanon independently.

The country had built a reputation for its friendly people, historical attractions, high value and the proximity of the ski slopes to Beirut for both short transfers and a dip in the warm Mediterranean sea. With six months still left to the start of the season Crystal are reported to be currently monitoring the situation in the hope that there is a return to normality.

The current situation bears an uncanny resemblance to the situation five years ago when Britain’s other leading ski tour operator, Inghams, released their ski brochure for the 2001-2 season. They included Mt Palandöken in Eastern Turkey, marking the return of Turkey to UK ski holiday brochures for the first time in a decade. The resort had invested heavily in modern lifts including Turkey’s only gondola and had four and five star hotels as well as being located above the 6000-year-old city of Erzurum, a great cultural melting pot dating back to the Byzantine Empire.

However its location, with Iraq and Syria lying 250 miles to the south; Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia 200 miles East meant that no ski package tour ever made it there as the second Gulf War broke out.

www.skileb.com

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Here is another article. The above came from SkiPress.

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