Empowering Lebanon's hotels: USAID-funded project to train 100 businesses

The President of the Lebanese Hotel Association, Pierre Achkar, considered the hotel sector essential for our hotel institutions, mainly medium-sized, small, and family-owned ones. 

This is for marketing and increasing their sales in Lebanon and abroad, based on the significant role that social media plays in our world today, especially in terms of promotion, marketing, and remote reservations.

Achkar's statement came during a comprehensive meeting organized by the Syndicate of Hotels Owners in Lebanon on Tuesday for hotels participating in the project implemented by the Trade and Investment Facilitation (TIF) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

The project aims to train 100 medium-sized, small, and family-owned hotels in all Lebanese regions to improve their marketing through social media to increase their sales without the need to resort to specialized agencies in this field.

In this regard, Achkar referred to several projects undertaken by the union to support hotels, including another project being carried out with USAID in energy conservation and transitioning to alternative energy sources.

Achkar emphasized that reducing electricity subscriptions and tariffs is one of the sector's fundamental issues, saying: "We have sent a letter in this regard to MP [Farid] Boustany, and there will be a meeting with the 'National Economy Committee' to follow up on the matter." 

He also noted that the cost of electricity and water reaches 25 percent of the operational cost for some hotel institutions, which is a very high figure.