Lebanon is full of remarkable towns: Baalbek, Jeita, the Cedars, Byblos, each with centuries of history and culture. For a Lebanese visitor, it’s easy to spend a day at these sites: they know where to eat, where to rest, and how to move around. But for international tourists, the story is different.

In 2025, the Tourism Index is only 3.07, showing that the country isn’t reaching its tourism potential. Attractions alone are not enough to make a visit enjoyable for someone unfamiliar with the area. Tourists need cafés, restaurants, hotels, and public spaces to fully experience a town. Without these facilities, even the most impressive sites become brief stopovers.

What the Data Shows: Facilities Matter

Our first visualization highlights a simple trend: towns with more cafés, hotels, and restaurants consistently have higher tourism scores.

For locals, visiting Baalbek or Jeita can feel easy, grabbing a meal, heading home, or knowing where to rest isn’t a problem. But for tourists, these small services are essential. Cafés for a quick break, restaurants for meals, and hotels to stay overnight transform a visit from a short stop into a full experience. Towns that lack these facilities limit the time and money tourists spend.

Tourism Initiatives Lead to Better Infrastructure

The second visualization compares towns that participate in the Tourism Initiatives Program versus those that don’t. The numbers tell the story:

• Cafés: 4.57 with initiatives vs 1.77 without

• Hotels: 0.97 with initiatives vs 0.26 without

• Restaurants: 6.57 with initiatives vs 1.88 without

Towns in the program have built the infrastructure visitors actually rely on. More cafés, hotels, and restaurants mean tourists stay longer, spend more, and enjoy their visits more fully.

Putting It Together

Side-by-side, the dashboards make the pattern clear:

Facilities drive tourism performance -> Tourism initiatives help towns build these facilities -> Tourism initiatives lead to a higher tourism index

Attractions spark interest, but facilities transform that interest into lasting experiences. This is the combination that leads to higher tourism scores.

For Lebanese visitors, these facilities may not feel critical — they can navigate easily. For tourists, however, they are the difference between a one-hour stop and a memorable, multi-hour visit.

Conclusion: Expand the Tourism Initiatives Program

Lebanon already has world-class attractions. What it needs now is better infrastructure around these sites to make visits enjoyable for all visitors.

The data shows a direct link between the Tourism Initiatives Program and the presence of cafés, hotels, and restaurants. To raise the Tourism Index above 3.07 and provide meaningful experiences for tourists, we need to expand this program and help more towns develop the facilities that turn attractions into lasting experiences.