A few days ago, the World Travel & Tourism Council published a report titled “Travel & Tourism, Economic Impact 2014, Lebanon.” The report’s contents were not surprising. It shows numbers indicating the importance of the tourism sector in Lebanon because tourism contributes to the national income, creates jobs, and accounts for a significant portion of the labor market.

The report reveals the size of the economic potential of the tourism sector, which until now has not been fully invested. In other words, the report showed the cost of missed opportunity arising from the lack of stability and from the delay in implementing structural reforms that are necessary for all productive sectors and for the public administration.

According to the report, the direct contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the Lebanese economy for 2014 is expected to reach $3.23 billion, which is 6.9% of total GDP. Moreover, the direct contribution of this sector to the economy is expected to grow by 2.2%, which is modest and puts Lebanon 159th in the world in this category.

This is not surprising, especially since the growth rate expected for Lebanon, according to the most optimistic estimates, is no more than 2%. The growth engines are almost idle because of the worsening Syrian crisis and its effect on all the security, political and economic agreements. It should be noted that the total contribution (both direct and indirect) for the travel and tourism sector, which affects all economic sectors, is expected to be $9 billion dollars, or 19.3% of economic activity in 2014.