The Woman's Word: Toward a Tourist Year in Lebanon

The Woman's Word

We are but a few months from the year 1955, and 1955, as everyone knows, is a "tourist year" in Lebanon. Those making ready to visit us are, even now, reckoned in the thousands. How, then, is the Lebanese woman preparing to prove herself — to play her part in the great drama that Lebanon is witnessing for the first time in its ancient history?

The year 1955 is a tourist year in Lebanon: how can woman contribute, in earnest, to this great national project?

The reader may be surprised when he hears me voice the opinion that this project is, at bottom, a woman's project. It is a project that demands a cheerful countenance and a general culture, nimbleness of movement and grace in conversation — and these, upon my life, are the merits of the woman of quality whenever she possesses an ample share of learning. And here is the point of departure for what I wish to say:

There is in Lebanon today a large handful of educated young women who are fitted — better than men — for the tasks of reception, escorting, and guidance (Guiding). Before us, the government of the revolution in Egypt awoke to woman's possibilities in this field: whoever visited the palace of the former King Farouk saw women guides, not men, recounting the necessary historical sketch, answering questions with fluency and brevity, and receiving visitors with sweet features that leave the loveliest of impressions upon them.

These educated, trained young women are the first to meet the tourist at the airport or the harbor, and the last to wave him farewell — they are Lebanon's comely face; and it is upon the face, not the body, that care is doubled and refined.

It is worth pointing out that the tourists and visitors who will take upon themselves the hardships of travel, through the skies and across the seas, to alight on a small spot scarcely visible on the surface of the globe — these will not be satisfied with sightseeing and attention that come merely improvised. The more artfully we display the beauties of our country and lift the curtain from its obscure secrets down the ages, and the more we prepare for our honored guests the means of bodily comfort and of unvulgar enjoyment of spirit, the more we shall help this project to succeed, and make possible its repetition on a broader and wider scale. And who will deny woman's inborn inclinations in these various domains — above all when those inclinations have been refined, and when they have been well directed toward what accords with the need of this very country??

The primary energy needed is at our disposal; all we have to do is set our minds upon the work. As to how that shall be done, I fear it is not my province: the Commissariat of Tourism and Summering may have the first word in it, or one of the great women's institutions may have capacity enough to carry the idea into execution — for I believe that when woman resolves upon a thing she accomplishes it, and nothing stands in her way. I am equally certain that she can furnish this organized women's corps, in the best possible manner, even if only a few months remain between us and the awaited tourist year.

I do not deny that the work is not of the easiest, that it requires a clear program, and that none should be admitted to it save those in whom certain qualities of character and background are found, and those who have completed a stage of higher study fitting them to absorb the required lessons, and to apply and practice them with ease and without affectation, after the manner of what is done in the advanced countries.

It has been said: once the key is found, entry within is no longer impossible! This is a frank and sincere word which I raise to those responsible, in the hope that it may find a listening ear and a positive will for swift and fruitful action...

The Editor-in-Chief