http://www.dailystar.com/ The Mount Lebanon region has seen a remarkable increase in tourism this summer, with scores of emigrants and Arab visitors filling several regions of the governate.
Hammana Mayor Habib Rizk told The Daily Star that the town is currently hosting some 450 Kuwaiti families in addition to several Emirate and Jordanian visitors.
"Since July 15, reservations at Hammana's hotels have exceeded 85 percent," Rizk said.
"Our traditional 'laughter festival' alone has received 10,000 people," he added.
"The economic and commercial activity has flourished in a remarkable way and the movie house here has reopened," he added.
Rasheed Zeineddine, a Ras al-Metn resident who coordinates tourism activity for the region, said ceremonies and festivals in the town were drawing large crowds of tourists.
"The Choueifat town, for example, has recovered its tourist activity as emigrants returned to their hometown," Zeineddine told The Daily Star. "Hotels and beach resorts in neighboring Khaldeh are also crowded with tourists."
Bhamdoun Mayor Osta Abu Rjaili said his village is living "the wedding of summer season."
"Rents and investment in Bhamdoun has set a record," he told The Daily Star. "We no longer have any empty hotel rooms or apartments.
"Even streets and cafes are full of people."
As for Aley, a prominent tourism resort in Lebanon, unemployment had decreased as the services sector had provided work for a large number of Lebanese job-seekers, according to Mayor Wajdi Mrad.
"Salaries have even been raised," he added.
"The growth in this year's tourist activity has caused many Lebanese youths to refrain from travelling abroad to work in their homeland."
The head of Aley's Merchants Association, Samir Chehab, said he expected the influx of tourists to remain heavy until the end of the holy month of Ramadan at the end of September.
"Residents of the Gulf intend to spend Ramadan in Lebanon," he told The Daily Star. "Lebanon's summer will be long this year."
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