Lebanon is experiencing a tourism boom

IT COULD be any luxury hotspot on the Mediterranean. The four-hour flight from Dubai, the region’s financial hub, may cost $1,000 each way. Holidaymakers fork out over $450 for hotel rooms, $100 for plates of grilled fish. Day-passes to beach clubs can cost 25% of the locals’ monthly minimum wage, yet the clubs are packed. When a punter called a popular haunt for a last-minute booking in July, the bemused receptionist asked if he meant July 2024.

This is not the French Riviera or Mykonos, though. It is Lebanon, where a financial crisis has pushed the country into one of the worst depressions in modern history. Since 2019 the currency has lost 98% of its value and GDP has plunged by 40%. Annual inflation has been above 100% since July 2020. The country is trying to secure a $3bn bail-out from the IMF.