Wizz Air Abu Dhabi bets on Lebanon tourism recovery with new Beirut route

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is betting on the swift recovery of tourism in Lebanon as it expands its network with a new route to Beirut, following a ceasefire deal that ended more than a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The ultra-low cost airline will start flights from Abu Dhabi to the Lebanese capital three times a week starting on June 4, it said on Tuesday. Its entry into the market "is a sign of Lebanon normalising and focusing back again on VFR [visiting friends and relatives] traffic, but also building tourism back in the region. This is a sign of how consumers are reacting and how demand for Lebanese routes is increasing", Johan Eidhagen, managing director of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, told The National. Tourism to Lebanon will recover "relatively fast" with the Middle East as a tourism destination growing "massively", he added. Tourism is a major pillar of Lebanon's crisis-hit economy. The country's real gross domestic product contracted by 7.1% last year because of the war, “a significant setback compared to a no-conflict growth estimated at 0.9%”, a recent World Bank report said. The country's GDP has declined nearly 40% since 2019, with the war further compounding the economic crisis. Reconstruction and recovery will cost about $11b, with $3b to $5b needed to be publicly financed, including $1b for the country's infrastructure alone. Private financing is required for about $6b to $8b of the costs, mostly in the housing, commerce, industry and tourism sectors, the World Bank said earlier this month.<br/>