Rio De Janeiro – #1 destination for 2013 as per the New York Times
If you are wondering why Lebanon was left out of the New York Times’ top 46 destinations for 2013, or was dubbed unsafe by the Lonely Planet as an unsafe destination for 2013, here are few points that I believe have contributed to this “achievement”:
1- Transportation: Closing the airport road has become so frequent it is becoming safer to land in Syria than in Beirut.
2- Food: Rotten products (Meat/Fish etc ..) were sold in tons to hotels, restaurants and pubs causing a major scandal that was never resolved properly (not to my knowledge).
3- Pollution: Lebnen “El Akhdar”‘s severe pollution is contaminating cheese and meat products.
4- Health: Over 100 types of medications were illegally distributed to hospitals and pharmacies for over 10 months and we never knew how the investigation ended
5- Corruption: Lebanon isamong the most corrupted countries in the world.
6- Music: Myriam Klink is the hottest topic of the year.
7- Security: Kidnapping foreigners is now a national sport thanks to the Mokdad family.
8- LifeStyle: Most Restaurants and nightclubs are overpriced, Hotels are expensive, Taxis want to rip you off and Customer Service is still relatively bad.
9- Business: Young Militia Fighters and Leaders of armed group are among the best paid part-time jobs in Lebanon.
10- Standards of living: No electricity, no water, no parks, lousy internet, bad network coverage, highest rent in the region, 10 Amps for 250$, crimes on the rise, bad roads, crazy drivers etc …
Oh and the Ministry of Tourism is not so sure we should be telling the tourists about the promotional packages and confusing the hell out of them with their ads.
You are just missing something:
11- Lebanese people want to rip off everyone, specially tourists.
You just summarized 2012 in a post! Job very well done!
These are all good points but most if not all of them have been there forever and people were still coming… You need to live in the gulf for a while to realize how much Lebanon meant/means to these people as a quick getaway at a destination where they know the language. Sure London, Munich, and Vienna are preferred destinations but once you take the cost (not so much in recent years) and the language factor, many would prefer Lebanon. That said, the only added factor is the deteriorating security situation led by our brethren in several Lebanese areas, threats to particular citizens (who happen to make up the largest percentage of tourists), and having an idiot for a minister of tourism who instead of arguing with foreign governments, needs to look after his ministry’s affairs.
I agree with GR on this one.
Most people abroad do not know about all the above issues. Their main reasons are security (the hostage situation added to that big time) and that the prices are soaring.
But i think they began to know about these things when they noticed how much they’ve been ripped off
You know your blog is one of the most viewed Lebanese blogs. How is this supposed to help?
I know you intention is to show us what is wrong with the country so we work on making it better, but the more people say Lebanon suck, the more people will be convinced of it and will stop trying to improve it.
And to the Lebanese emigrates who are happy with dubai, paris or Melbourne, there is no need to spit on Lebanon. This is where you come from and if you’re not happy with it, just forget you come from a country called Lebanon and stop ruining its image more and more.
This situation is bad, we get it, but stop whining about it, it’s not getting us anywhere.
And perhaps this is a good thing, perhaps we should start changing the type of tourism, focus more on industries, etc etc
Now about #5, corruption. Let me laugh. You want to tell me France and Italy are not corrupted? Well they attract tourism you know. Corruption is all over the world.
Music? eh ma enta lamma bet rou7 3a thailand masalan, btetalla3 3al mousi2a el tailandiyyeh, aw bas trou7 3al 5alij bet rou7 li2annak bet mout bel mousi2a el 5alijiyyeh ma hek?
Health? Lebanon has always been a privileged destination in the region for health and hospitals. Sure, Gulf people payed the west with their oil money to get the best doctors out there, ma 5talafna, bas our hospitals are still the best in the region.
LifeStyle: when the Times ranked Beirut is the top party city in the world, people did not seem to complain about it. Now it’s become a problem?
Also, I would like to see “people attacking the Grand Serail” or “people walking around the kalachnikoff in Tripoli in the “Security threats”. Unless you’re not aware of these events.
Beiruti,
I was merely stating facts that justify why we are not on any website’s list of countries to visit this year. Whatever I said is out there for all to see and is the reason we are not getting any tourists whether we admit it or not. Nevertheless, I didn’t say Lebanon is not worthy visiting and I had a post in mind for that as well 🙂
I am not complaining at all and if u follow my blog, you ll see I offer suggestions and solutions and try to bring out the positive things out of our problems or add some humor to them. I live in Lebanon and enjoy it as much as possible.
As far as corruption is concerned, there is an index to measure that and we are at the bottom of it.
Music-wise, we have great artists yet people like Klink are trending. Care to explain?
We have the best hospitals and doctors but that’s not enough when u have so much pollution and lack of green spaces among other things.
Go take a look at Beirut’s pubs and nights and show me what the nightlife has come to unfortunately.
As for the last events, there are many I did not mention but that I’ve talked about previously.
Again, I did not come up with this list. It’s why we are not getting any tourists but I still love Lebanon and believe it’s worth visiting. Stay tuned 🙂
I’m from London, I’ve visited Lebanon many times.
I still wouldn’t EVER recommend it to anyone.
Beiruti’s comment proves nothing about Lebanon
10. Blogs like yours that only transmit a negative image of Lebanon. And if something positive is written, it is full of cheap sarcasm and is considered a miracle.
Stop promoting negativeness and pessimism. We have a beautiful country, and as a well read lebanese blog, it would be good to highlight more positive aspects of Lebanon. I’m sure you can find many, if you care to search.
Sounds a lot cooler than Brazil, where i live!
and who´s the idiot at New York Times who thinks Rio is a good place to visit? I wouldn´t recommend Rio to the Devil! oh, maybe he thinks Rio is on Argentina!
Blumenau is a much safer city!
The general situation In Lebanon transmits negativity.
It’s not a secret and it sure isn’t being exposed on this blog…
People today are educated and read more than one news source for their information.
It’s the sad truth. Many of us living abroad love Lebanon, but we continue to hope and pray that the situation improves so we can visit someday.
People we are a war torn country. Let any other country go through our war and wel see how they fair. Lets get back to number 1
The biggest issue is that Lebanon is seen to tourists as one big whorehouse. Most touristic ads show women in barely any clothes and promote Beirut as a party town etc.
While it’s great we have this variety of nightlife, the image is that all we do is get wasted and party hard, while other basic services like water/electricity, political instability and sectarianism are rampant.
Exactly right! And those bulshitters who are responsible of lebanon They made us believe all their lies so they transformed the lebanese heaven to hell!! Meanwhile other people have transformed their desert hell to a heaven… Good luck Lebanon !! My advice for the lebanese: leave now don’t let the bullshit get to you. Now is better than never. Leave it for the srilankians bangladeshi Egyptians Hindi Syrians etc…