BEIRUT: Worsening economic conditions in Lebanon have forced many people to adjust the fasting habits and festivities that usually accompany the month of Ramadan.
Outdoor restaurants and coffeeshops are attracting customers again as pandemic-related restrictions are eased and warmer weather arrives after a long, cold winter.
However, not many people can afford to go out — the owners of hotels and restaurants say their customers “do not exceed 8 percent of the Lebanese people, and they are the same ones who frequent entertainment places on a weekly basis in light of the absence of the Arab and foreign tourists in Lebanon.”
The month of Ramadan, through the iftars (after sunset meals) and sahoors (before dawn meal) in restaurants, is an important source of income for the tourism sector every year. However, the market has been hit by the increase in the price of food, transport and generators’ bills, the emigration of staff and the closing down of many tourist institutions due to the deterioration of the Lebanese pound.
The head of the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes and Restaurants, Tony Ramy, said that “people want to entertain themselves by going out from home after a period of confinement due to the winter season, and we want to provide these people with a breathing space to have their iftar meals in restaurants and to restore the Ramadan atmosphere to forget about the tense and sad situation.”
Arab News toured a number of restaurants and cafes in and outside Beirut. Managers spoke about offering a range of options to customers from a full iftar meal that might exceed the minimum wage in Lebanon, which is LBP675,000, and to a salad, soup, and a plate of French fries for around LBP100,000.
Naeem, an employee at one of Beirut’s restaurants, said that the increase in food prices was caused by the rise in the cost of cooking gas and generator bills, because electricity comes only for one hour per day “while we have to provide the generator’s electricity and pay in dollars.”
At many cafes, cellphone and laptop chargers stand next to coffee or tea cups.
Ramy said: “During the first week of the month of Ramadan people prefer to have family iftars at home, and might prefer to frequent cafes instead of restaurants to save expenses.”
In early 2019, the syndicate counted 8,500 outlets in Lebanon in the beverages, food, entertainment, snacks, and Arab sweets sectors. The number fell by 550 in 2020, and due to the lockdown in the first 6 months of 2021 the sector lost another 1,000 outlets.
Ramy said: “We are trying to survive through crisis management in our establishments and to be resilient because we love Lebanon.”
“The sales of this sector had reached $9.7 billion in 2010 and created 200,000 jobs and it gave a push to all other productive sectors, because tourism activates the agricultural and industrial sectors, and the food industry provides jobs and many investments.”
The head of the Federation of Tourism Syndicates and Hotel Owners Syndicate, Pierre Al-Ashkar, said that the main problem in the hotel sector was to secure diesel oil, the price of which was skyrocketing: “We cannot ration our generators for we need electricity 24/7 and this is an exorbitant cost.”
Al-Ashkar played down any sign of recovery for the sector during Easter and iftar, but pointed out that some hotel owners in high mountainous areas with snow were able to achieve profit.
