Lebanese hotels have been authorized by the Ministry of Tourism to collect foreign currency from foreign tourists. The same circular specifies that the pricing will remain in Lebanese pounds for local tourists.
According to the Lebanese authorities, this would mean allowing these foreign currencies to be reinjected into the local economy strongly impacted by the economic crisis that Lebanon has been going through since 2019.
According to Pierre Achkar, the president of the Syndicate of tourist organizations, hotel establishments will be able to use these fresh dollars to pay their expenses instead of resorting to the black market, thus making it possible to reduce the pressure on the local currency.
This use of so-called hard currencies should not, however, have too much of an impact on the prices themselves, which have already fallen sharply, even for foreigners due to a reduced occupancy rate.
As a reminder, many establishments have closed their doors over the past 2 years, due on the one hand to the economic crisis in Lebanon and on the other hand to the consequences of the COVID19 pandemic on this sector of activity in the world with a decrease in air traffic in particular.
