BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Fireworks lit up the night sky over Beirut\u2019s famous St. Georges Hotel as hit songs from the 1960s and 70s filled the air in a courtyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
The retro-themed event was hosted last month by Lebanon\u2019s Tourism Ministry to promote the upcoming summer season and perhaps recapture some of the good vibes from an era viewed as a golden one for the country. In the years before a civil war began in 1975, Lebanon was the go-to destination for wealthy tourists from neighboring Gulf countries seeking beaches in summer, snow-capped mountains in winter and urban nightlife year-round.<\/p>\n
In the decade after the war, tourists from Gulf countries \u2013 and crucially, Saudi Arabia \u2013 came back, and so did Lebanon\u2019s economy. But by the early 2000s, as the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah<\/a> gained power, Lebanon\u2019s relations with Gulf countries began to sour. Tourism gradually dried up, starving its economy of billions of dollars in annual spending.<\/p>\n Now, after last year\u2019s bruising war<\/a> with Israel, Hezbollah is much weaker and Lebanon\u2019s new political leaders<\/a> sense an opportunity to revitalize the economy once again with help from wealthy neighbors. They aim to disarm Hezbollah and rekindle ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, which in recent years have prohibited their citizens from visiting Lebanon or importing its products<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTourism is a big catalyst, and so it\u2019s very important that the bans get lifted,\u201d said Laura Khazen Lahoud, the country\u2019s tourism minister.<\/p>\n On the highway leading to the Beirut airport, once-ubiquitous banners touting Hezbollah\u2019s leadership have been replaced with commercial billboards and posters that read \u201ca new era for Lebanon.\u201d In the center of Beirut, and especially in neighborhoods that hope to attract tourists, political posters are coming down, and police and army patrols are on the rise.<\/p>\n There are signs of thawing relations with some Gulf neighbors. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have lifted yearslong travel bans<\/a>. <\/p>\n All eyes are now on Saudi Arabia<\/a>, a regional political and economic powerhouse, to see if it will follow suit, according to Lahoud and other Lebanese officials. A key sticking point is security, these officials say. Although a ceasefire with Israel has been in place since November, near-daily airstrikes<\/a> have continued in southern and eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah over the years had built its political base and powerful military arsenal. <\/p>\n Tourism as a diplomatic and economic bridge<\/p>\n As vital as tourism<\/a> is \u2014 it accounted for almost 20% of Lebanon\u2019s economy before it tanked in 2019 \u2014 the country\u2019s leaders say it is just one piece of a larger puzzle they are trying to put back together. <\/p>\n Lebanon\u2019s agricultural and industrial sectors are in shambles, suffering a major blow in 2021, when Saudi Arabia banned their exports after accusing Hezbollah of smuggling drugs into Riyadh. Years of economic dysfunction<\/a> have left the country\u2019s once-thriving middle class in a state of desperation.<\/p>\n