To Lebanon, O Tourist!

• With Mr. Michel Toma, Commissioner of Tourism and Summering.
• The committee for emigrants drawn from the women's organizations, headed by Mrs. Heneni Tarcha.
• An important program in preparation for the tourism year 1955.
• The importance of local color in all tourism.
• A profit of one hundred million Lebanese lira.

We bid farewell to this changeable interval between winter and spring, its gusts alternating between the scorching simoom and the gentle east wind, and with it we bid farewell to the woolen clothes that shielded us from the ravages of the dying north wind, welcoming as a happy omen the coming of summer, whose first easterly breezes are about to occupy our dear horizon, to breathe into our land a season that will bring back its delights and joys.

I set out for the Commissariat of Tourism and Summering, attending to a few errands on my way, the passers-by jostling me and I them — now a motorcar bearing down on me, and now I upon it. Amid the din I made out persons whose looks proclaimed them strangers, guests of our shores for the first time, surveying its landmarks and feeling out its features with an eager, absorbing eye, making no effort to hide the onlooker's curiosity and his keenness of observation. At last my rounds brought me to the foot of a gleaming marble staircase, which I climbed at once, fearing to be late for the appointment fixed with Mr. Toma. And hardly had I reached the third floor, which the Commissariat occupies, when the usher showed me into the elegant office, and the gracious Commissioner motioned me to the fine leather chair, to offer me some information 'for The Woman's Voice.'

Lebanon is a country of tourism, of which summering forms one part: one cannot point to any month of the year in which Lebanon is without tourists, thanks to the special attraction nature has bestowed upon its seasons and months. Today, for example, in spring, the coasts and the ancient sites are bright with tourist parties and with European and American cultural excursions. Then in summer the sons of the Arab lands make for the oasis of their desert, Lebanon, on the peaks and in the mountains — nor do we except the coasts, for, relative to the heat of their climate, they see no harm in resorting to the sea and its air, charged with nourishing, refreshing azote.

And the number of tourists in autumn exceeds that of summer. No wonder: it is then a season whose mildness embraces coast and mountain alike, amid the flood of ripened fruit, while a soft breeze, moist of breath, plays with the branches that have laid down their burden; and there are long nights, all pleasure and serenity, in which the houses of amusement and the gathering-places of every kind play their leading role. Meanwhile the keepers of the hotels fitted for heating are making ready for the coming skiing season — though it ranks below its three brothers, because the Lebanese are as yet but slightly versed in this art, while it abounds in Europe.

And strangely, I found myself at their mention longing for cold and snow — not because I pride myself on skiing, nor because I mourn the departed winter, but because of the intense heat I had felt after the long running about the markets, before I ended at the Commissariat, where the 'chauffage' had been given free rein through all its rooms! And likewise, whether to control the temperature or to shut out the clamor of the street, the wooden shutter-blinds had been drawn across the wide, tightly closed windows! Naturally, then, I did not hesitate to send a large draught from the glass of Coca-Cola down my throat, and thereafter to express the wish of The Woman's Voice to cast a quick glance over the foreign tourists and the average of what they spend in the country. And Mr. Toma continued —

If we set aside our own national summer visitors from the list of tourists, the nationalities, in the order of their statistical majority, become: Syria, the United States, Jordan, Britain, Turkey, Iraq, France, Egypt, the Saudi Kingdom, Palestine, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Holland, Germany, Kuwait, Iran, Switzerland, and other sources. The following table demonstrates the extent of the progress of tourism in Lebanon, its steady advance and its flourishing.

The average of what the tourists spend annually runs from seventy to one hundred million Lebanese lira. We see, then, that the result comes back to:

1 — Increasing the income of foreign currencies and encouraging their investment inside the country.

2 — Strengthening the feeling of national and civic dignity.

3 — Spurring on the cleaning and beautifying of every community.

4 — Creating an interest in the national economy.

5 — Spreading publicity for the country abroad.

And publicity is among the matters the Commissariat has lately attended to, among its many fields of activity, and has spread by every means: among them the cinema, among them the press, and among them participation in the international exhibitions. It pleases me to recall to the Commissioner what the newspapers noted of Lebanon's winning the first prize at the economic fair at Bari in Italy in the year 1953; the Commissariat likewise continues its efforts to organize the Lebanese pavilion at the São Paulo exhibition next July. Among the means of publicity, too, is Lebanon's entry into various international councils and bodies.

He went on to say: There comes to my mind now the completion of an important program for the tourism year, the coming 1955.

— And you will promise us a reportage on this program, God willing?

— Without doubt; and I have great hope in woman's sharing in its publicity. And what proves woman's cooperation with the Commissariat is that yesterday I was at a meeting with the committee for emigrants drawn from the women's organizations in Lebanon. This committee divides its work between contact with the Lebanese abroad, to strengthen their bond with their first homeland, and visits to the country's various regions, meeting the members of their municipalities to carry out the Commissariat's projects with all zeal and devotion. Would that every institution attended to some side of tourism and summering, so as to cast off the inferiority complex that turns us away from that openness of heart which is among the necessities of mixing and acquaintance. Would that we came out of self-contraction into the sphere of equality with those foreign in race and tongue — not to shun and criticize them, but to attract and charm them. It would be but courtesy and graciousness of conduct for a Lebanese family, for example, to invite a company of foreign tourists to a simple tea party in which harmony and refined taste shine forth, so that they may touch at close range that exemplary family life of ours of which we have so long sung. How fitting for us to hold fast to our inherited solidarity, that it may strengthen our arm in joining the ancient civilizations of the East with the modern civilization of the West, on a ground of understanding and affection.

'And what I wish for Lebanon is what I have witnessed in my many journeys — I mean that local coloring with which every country by itself is tinted. I remember one day attending a popular festival in Portugal in which folkloric splendor shone forth, in sumptuous national costumes, a matchless characteristic dance, and astonishing, breathtaking horsemanship. And likewise there still ring in my ears the folk songs of Greece, rising from around the mountains to mingle with the echo of the moans of the Aegean Sea — in the days when the east of the Mediterranean drew down its inspiration, its people were the very masters of travel: they fused the arts, plowed the deep, and mingled with the races in every school. Let them suffice us as a spur, that we may venture into the arts of this age of models, of give-and-take, and of acquisition, and so enchant hearts and minds. Lebanon, O homeland of the tourist — wide open to him are your spaces.'