Preparations are underway to receive tourists and expatriates returning to Lebanon. The Ministry of Tourism has gathered "its arms," along with all those working in the tourism sector, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, and guest houses.
Only a promising tourism sector raises its head shyly but steadfastly and persistently amidst the crowd of preparations without having received sufficient support from those concerned with tourism to this day.
It is the Airbnb sector, or what is known as short-term rentals, which is now competing with hotels globally and locally, despite the lack of legal legislation for it yet.
This article was originally published in and translated from Lebanese newspaper Nidaa al-Watan.
Lebanon rode this tourism wave and began transforming it from an individual business with limited interest and profits into an organized business that could contribute to activating Lebanon's response to the challenges posed by new tourism methods and, at the same time, contribute to increasing tourism revenues for the country and individuals at a time when they are in dire need of hard currency returns.
Based on Nidaa al-Watan, this type of rent boom began with the boom of the Internet. Hence, anyone with a house or a room in his home that he would like to rent resorts to displaying it through Internet platforms for interested parties to see wherever they are in the world, and people find in these homes an opportunity to stay at a lower cost than hotels.
However, to include them within the tourism network, Nidaa al-Watan said that it is not enough to work on the level of individual homes. Instead, it is necessary to market certain areas and highlight their tourism and environmental capabilities capable of attracting tourists, which revitalizes the region and revives the homes offered for rent, whether in the neighborhoods of Beirut or the mountainous areas.
However, despite the importance of short-term rentals, they pose a major problem, whether for hotels or for the laws and legislation regulating them globally, not just locally. It constitutes a strong competitor to hotels, and this sector has begun to complain about its existence, according to what was previously heard from a prominent hotel personality.
Tourism is divided into hotels, guest houses, and short-term rental homes. However, those concerned with marketing the latter sector reject this principle. Their argument, according to Roland Bitar, a founding managing partner of Local Host, is that when certain areas are marketed and helped to flourish, this contributes to keeping people in their farms, preserving their old and heritage homes, and making everything in the region flourish, even the surrounding hotels, restaurants and all activities.
He stressed that when people contribute to increasing the number of people coming to Lebanon, they will help revitalize all tourism sectors without creating harmful competition.
Indeed, this sector has not yet been legalized, and some cities are setting conditions for it so that it does not affect the hotel sector, while others encourage it to revive tourism. Yet, based on Nidaa al-Watan, in Lebanon, the matter is still far from legislation, as there are no specific licenses given by the Ministry of Tourism or municipalities to those who wish to rent out their house or companies, and no additional taxes are imposed.
Instead, the house is subject to the usual financial and municipal taxes, just as the operating company is subject to taxes on profits, income tax, and others. The rental price is not determined by any law but is subject to supply and demand and varies according to region.
The summer season looks promising, and bookings have reached 75 percent. However, despite that, the Ministry of Tourism is still almost absent from this scene, despite its significant contribution to revitalizing tourism.
According to Nidaa al-Watan, there is no census of homes offered for rent, whether individually or through companies, no maps of their locations, and no marketing for this sector by the Ministry.
The reason may be because this sector has not yet been "crowded" and a union has not been established for it, as did the owners of guest houses, and work in it is still on an individual level, except for some companies that are working hard to turn it into a business and a productive sector, Nidaa al-Watan reported.