With travel warning lifted, Lebanon awaits return of Saudis

"They come here to have a good time."Tarek approves of it because of the prospect of Saudi money supporting Lebanese businessmen."It will help tourism, that is good news for all of Lebanon," she said.Lebanon suffered a precipitous drop in the number of Saudi tourists over the last eight years, with with visitor numbers falling from 190,000 in 2010 to a quarter of that by 2018, according to Lebanon's tourism ministry.Jean Beyrouthi, secretary general of the federation of touristic unions in Lebanon, said the trend was a blow to tourist-dependent businesses because Saudis take relatively longer vacations, opt for expensive hotels and restaurants, and spend "big bucks"."The Saudis come for the summers and lavishly spend which is great for the tourism industry," Beyrouthi told Al Jazeera. According to World Bank's 2019 Ease of Doing Business survey, Lebanon is ranked at the 75th place."Credible and concrete reforms to improve the investment climate are the only way to attract investments from GCC countries and from other sources," Ghobril told Al Jazeera.Walid Al Bukhari, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, said that the kingdom had received the required security assurances from the Lebanese government and no longer saw the travel warning as a necessity.Saudi officials cited improved security and assurances from the Lebanese government as reasons for its policy change.