"Tourism can also offer a lot of potential if the
necessary investment in infrastructure is provided",
asserts Dr. Ghanem, the Secretary of the GPC for Economy
and Trade, when asked for alternative investment opportunities
other than the oil-related. That is the word in the mouth
of every single Libyan and foreign businessman who knows
the country: Potential. The boom that everybody expected
in the tourism sector, especially since the lifting of
the sanctions, is yet to come.
Libya has a fabulous landscape of an incredible variety.
To the contrary of what most people think, Libya is
far more than desert and touareg "haimas".
Starting up with more than two thousand kilometres of
coast bathing in the Mediterranean sea, almost untouched
Roman archaeological sites, high mountain chains with
Swiss-like green valleys, magnificent seas of dunes
spotted with beautiful oasis and finishing with prehistorical
drawings and carvings, one may think that Libya has
everything it needs to build up a thriving tourism industry.
Up to now heavily dependent on its oil for social and
economic development, Libya recognized the need to promote
tourism. This has proven a successful hard currency
income generator in Libyan neighbours to the East and
the West: Tunis and Egypt. As a result, Libyan tourism,
long relegated as a business-oriented activity, now
has the promise of coming into its own. It is with this
development in mind that a master plan was prepared
for the sector under the guidance of World Tourism Organization
in 2001, setting out short- and long-term objectives
and identifying strategic initiatives necessary for
their fulfilment.
Since little investment has been made in the sector
since the 1980s there is a long list of issues to be
addressed. Among these are the need to strengthen the
institutional structure underlying the tourism sector;
the training of personnel within the public and private
sector organizations involved in tourism related activities;
an image improvement public relations exercise from
the point of view of international source markets; improved
infrastructure; and the launching of an important tourism-awareness
campaign. For this purpose, a semi governmental institution,
the High Authority for Tourism and Antiquities (HATA)
was put in place to coordinate and implement the state's
efforts to develop this sector. This organization also
gave new thrust to the half-forgotten state-owned tourism
companies like the National Company for Development
& Tourism Investment or the Libyan Tourism and Travel
Company, and gave new hopes to the small but well performing
private agencies, such as Winzrik, Wings or Zawia Tourism
Company.
But an economic sector is not built only on good intentions
and Government' speeches. Although Libya has good transport
infrastructure, there is almost none housing facilities
for western standards, apart from the extremely complicated
visa procedure.
The Government has done very little in promoting Libyan
tourism abroad, being this policy crucial for this sector.
"We, the private businessmen involved in the tourism
sector have complained many times to the HATA, because
it is not giving any money to support the country's
promotion in international fairs. We are doing everything
by ourselves, and we think that this is the Government
task", says the manager of one of the travel and
tourism agencies based in Tripoli.
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The authorities
want this sector to be developed by the private sector,
specially by foreign investment, but apart from one or
two specific investment done or compromised, the natural
beauties of Libya and the facilities given by the Law
number 5 for Foreign Investment don't seem enough to convince
the large European hotel and resort chains to invest largely
in the country.
With exceptions, of course. Work continues on the Maltese-
based Corinthia Group's new hotel in downtown Tripoli.
Planned to be opened to customers on summer 2003, this
five star luxury hotel will surely attract the increasing
flow of foreign businessman looking for opportunities
in Tripoli. The Group is also planning to open three
more hotels in Libya over the next five years, at a
cost of US$80m each. "The Tripoli Hotel project
is not only further emphasizing our long-standing commitment
to Libya but, in those instances where Maltese contractors
are proving to be competitive on the international market,
we have also been able to generate economic activity
here in Malta, our home base" Mr. Alfred Pisani,
the Corinthia Group Chairman and CEO, states in the
company's web page. The Tripoli Hotel project is one
of the most ambitious undertaken to date by the Corinthia
Group. The project centers on two towers, rising to
14 and 28 floors respectively, forming the central core
of the Hotel, as well as an adjacent 10,000 m2 commercial
center to be leased as offices to third parties.
Libya's potential has also caught the eye of Prince
al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, al-Saud a billionaire
Saudi businessman. He has established a joint venture
to build a 260-room hotel in Tripoli at an estimated
cost of US$ 40 million, to be managed by Moevenpick,
a Swiss hotel group. Prince al-Walid owns 60% of the
joint venture, the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company
(LAFICO) 25% and the municipality of Tripoli 15%.
Mr. Fayez Halim was the former
chairman of the Mahari Hotel Group, one of the most important
hotel chains in the country, which owns the Mahari hotel
(the official Government hotel for foreign delegations)
and stakes in many others, and is at the same time owned
by the almighty Social Security Fund. Mr. Haleim thinks
that the foreign investors are making a mistake: "some
companies still do not trust this country and they want
more guarantees. They do not want to spend a lot of money
because this lack of guarantees but they are moving slowly
because every few weeks there is a new company coming
here. It is a very feasible market and there are good
chances for foreign companies. (…) Now it is the
perfect timing to invest and this chance will not happen
again because in two or three years it could be too late."
The reality is that the Government is still not sure of
how to handle the development of the sector and what they
want to make from it. They see it as a good alternative
source of foreign currency and a good business itself,
but at the same time they are zealous of their beautiful
country and they don't want it to be spoiled by a massive,
low cost tourism strategy. So for now they are limiting
the offer to a very targeted market: the ecological, cultural
and adventure tourist. |
