Hotel average rate same as 20 years ago

by Rania Ghanem  The 2016 average room rate in Beirut hotels was the same level as that in 1996, which was $166. Significant changes however had been registered over the years with rates reaching their peak of $281 in 2009. Both figures were stated in the recent report: ‘2017 Middle East hotel survey – Chaos consolidation and opportunity’ by HVS, a global hotel consulting firm. Pierre Achkar, Chairman of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners, said: “Rates should have at least doubled during this 20-year period,” especially since GDP has more than tripled from $15 billion to $50 billion. The average occupancy rate at Beirut hotels during the last twenty years (1996-2016) was 54 percent. Occupancy rate was also 54 percent last year, registering a 20 percent decrease from 1996. Occupancy rates reached a peak of 71 percent in 2004. Beirut had the lowest rate among 14 cities in the Middle East that have complete data for the covered period. The survey covers three, four, and five star hotels in 42 cities regionally. The compound annual growth for rates per available room (RevPAR) grew one percent during this period. It reached $88 last year increasing from $75 in 1996. RevPAR reached its peak ($197) in 2009. Achkar said: “Occupancy and room rates remained stable in the country, although the number of hotel beds didn’t increase much.” In other cities, like Dubai, RevPAR increased from $120 in 1996 to $205 last year, in parallel with a large increase in the number of hotel beds. Reported by

Trump Likens Hizbullah to IS, Qaida, Lauds Lebanon and Lebanese Army

by Naharnet

 U.S. President Donald Trump compared Hizbullah in a landmark speech on Sunday to extremist organizations such as Islamic State and al-Qaida, as he lauded the Lebanese army for fighting IS and Lebanon for hosting a huge number of Syrian refugees. “We now face a humanitarian and security disaster in this region that is spreading across the planet. It is a tragedy of epic proportions. No description of the suffering and depravity can begin to capture its full measure,” said Trump in a speech focused on terrorism during the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh.

“The true toll of ISIS, al-Qaida, Hizbullah, Hamas, and so many others, must be counted not only in the number of dead. It must also be counted in generations of vanished dreams,” Trump added. Applauding the Gulf Cooperation Council for “blocking funders from using their countries as a financial base for terror, and designating Hizbullah as a terrorist organization last year,” the U.S. leader praised Saudi Arabia for joining Washington this week in “placing sanctions on one of the most senior leaders of Hizbullah,” Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, who is the head of the party's powerful executive council. “Of course, there is still much work to do,” Trump added. He lamented that “from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.” “For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” Trump charged.

He also applauded Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for “their role in hosting refugees.” Trump also acknowledged the Lebanese army's role in fighting IS militants on the eastern border, saying “many are already making significant contributions to regional security” and that “the Lebanese Army is hunting ISIS operatives who try to infiltrate their territory.” A defiant Safieddine had stressed earlier on Sunday that the U.S. administration will not be able to “harm the resistance,” three days after he was blacklisted by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented "joint terrorist designation." “America's malice and siege against our region, countries, homelands and societies prove that it has become a lot weaker than it was in the previous years and decades, and that can be evidenced by the skepticism on Trump's continued leadership of the United States of America and the daily attacks on him from most U.S. media outlets and the world's media empires,” Safieddine said. “When the U.S. administration was in a good situation, it did not manage to harm the resistance, and therefore this mentally impeded and mad U.S. administration led by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance and they will not get anything,” the Hizbullah official added. “What they will get is further screaming in the media and everything they have done will come to an end,” Safieddine emphasized.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Sunday accused regional rival Shiite Iran of exporting extremist Islamic movements to the world and vowed to eliminate the Islamic State group. "The Iranian regime has been the spearhead of global terrorism since the (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini revolution" in 1979, King Salman said in a speech to leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump. "We did not know terrorism and extremism until the Khomeini revolution reared its head," he said. Saudi Arabia was also determined to "eliminate the Islamic State group," the king said of the Sunni Muslim jihadist organization. The Saudi leader's speech came minutes before a highly anticipated address by Trump, who arrived in the Sunni kingdom on Saturday on his first foreign tour since taking office. The United States and Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced an arms deal worth almost $110 billion, described as the largest in U.S. history. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the deal was aimed at countering "malign Iranian influence."

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held brief exchanges Sunday in Riyadh with the kingdom's deputy crown prince and the U.S. and Saudi foreign ministers. The talks were held on the sidelines of a landmark Arab-Islamic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. The premier's office said Hariri held brief exchanges with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir before the end of the summit. MTV had reported that Hariri held a brief chat with Saudi Arabia's powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after he was welcomed to the summit by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz. A close aide to Hariri had said that the prime minister's stances at summit “will not breach Lebanese consensus.” “The participation was discussed in Cabinet and was coordinated between President Michel Aoun, PM Hariri and Hizbullah's ministers in the government, and PM Hariri will not have stances that breach Lebanese consensus and there will be no dramatic and unusual decisions,” Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury told al-Mustaqbal newspaper in remarks published Sunday. “The issue of Hizbullah's arms will not be tackled by the summit and I don't think there will be anything new regarding the Lebanese situation,” Khoury added. Describing the Syrian refugee crisis as a “dramatic repercussion,” the minister said “Lebanon is concerned with asking the Arab, Islamic and international communities to close ranks to resolve the Syrian crisis peacefully to pave the way for the refugees' return and for the start of the project of rebuilding Syria.” “Most participating countries have already labeled Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and they are not awaiting Lebanon's stance in this regard and there will be nothing new on this,” Khoury went on to say. He also noted that Lebanon would not voice reservations over the summit's resolutions or over the issue of combating terrorism “unless there will be resolutions pertaining to a domestic Lebanese issue.” “I however doubt that that will happen,” Khoury added. “President Aoun took part in the Jordan summit and the official rhetoric expressed the consensus of the Lebanese, and PM Hariri is heading to the summit with the same rhetoric on which the Lebanese have agreed,” the minister went on to say. Lebanon

‘The kitchen has no religion’: the Lebanese activist offering hope through food

by Wendell Steavenson- The guardian 

Kamal Mouzawak grew up in Jeita, a small town in the mountains north of Beirut, during the Lebanese civil war. One of his earliest memories was when his mother was out of the kitchen and he decided to make a cake. He thought to himself: ‘What is a cake?’ He stirred a slurry of flour, sugar and eggs in an empty sardine tin because he could not find a cake pan and cooked it on top of the stove. “It was a burnt omelette!” he laughed, remembering the experiment over lunch this spring in Beirut. “But what still amazes me is the metamorphosis of ingredients.” Over the last decade, Mouzawak has created a recipe for transforming people’s lives through food. He now presides over a network of markets, restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts and community outreach programmes in Lebanon.

Some projects are non-profit, others for-profit, and through them Mouzawak has developed a model of social entrepreneurship that is as much about empowering people as selling products. His brings together farmers, chefs, NGOs, designers and artisans, connecting people to politicians and business to ethics. One morning, in his main restaurant in Beirut, I watched him conduct three business meetings simultaneously, moving from table to table, discussing photographs for a new cookbook, plans for a new restaurant and giving a quick briefing to a group of European journalists on a tour. His enterprise is called Souk el Tayeb. Souk is Arabic for market and tayeb is a useful word with several meanings, including good, kind, delicious. It signifies acceptance, acknowledgement and thank you all rolled into one. Souk el Tayeb began as a farmers’ market in 2004.

I lived in Beirut when the market first opened on a scratched patch of car park, one of the bald spots in a city destroyed by 15 years of civil war. It sold orange blossom honey from the citrus orchards in the south, thick dark pomegranate molasses made by a grandmother in a mountain village, jars of pickled radishes, cucumbers, peppers; feta cheese preserved in oil with thyme and chillies. The sambousek stuffed with ground lamb and spinach always sold out within the first hour. Fresh fruit from across Lebanon at the Souk el Tayeb farmers’ market in Beirut. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fresh fruit from across Lebanon at the Souk el Tayeb farmers’ market in Beirut. Photograph: Natalie Naccache for the Observer The market is still one of the great wonders of the Middle East. I walked along the rows of stalls one recent sunny spring Saturday morning, marvelling, wide-eyed and hungry.

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Trumps signs $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia on 'a tremendous day'

By Jordyn Phelps & RYAN STRUYK ABC news

President Trump signed a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia on Saturday, the initial day of his first foreign trip since taking office. "That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States," Trump said. "Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs," he said. The agreement commits Saudi Arabia to buying military equipment from the U.S. and to hiring American companies to build such equipment in Saudi Arabia, according to Gary Cohn, the president's chief economic adviser. The deal includes tanks and helicopters for border security, ships for coastal security, intelligence-gathering aircraft, a missile-defense radar system and cybersecurity tools, according to the State Department.

In a joint press appearance on Saturday with the Saudi foreign minister, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised the pact as a "historic moment in U.S.-Saudi relations." He also expressed an openness to talks with Iran. “I’ve never shut off the phone to anyone that wants to talk or have a productive conversation,” he said. “At this point, I have no plans to call my counterpart in Iran, although in all likelihood we will talk at the right time.”. Tillerson said the pact sends a "very strong message to our common enemies" on trying to disrupt "violent extremist messaging" and "financing of terrorism." He also said the deal "lowers the cost to the American people of providing security in this region."

The Trump administration has been working to finalize the deal over the past several months. White House press secretary Sean Spicer called the deal "huge news for U.S. companies and American workers who will benefit" in a tweet on Saturday morning. This is huge news for US companies and American workers who will benefit #jobs https://t.co/9RarqOwVAy — Sean Spicer (@PressSec) May 20, 2017

Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner personally called the president of Lockheed Martin, a major supplier of U.S. military equipment, in order to negotiate a lower price for the radar system, according to the New York Times. "This package of defense equipment and services supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of malign Iranian influence and Iranian related threats. Additionally, it bolsters the Kingdom's ability to provide for its own security and continue contributing to counterterrorism operations across the region, reducing the burden on U.S. military forces," the State Department said in a statement. A White House official added that in addition to demonstrating the U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia "and our Gulf partners," it also expands "opportunities for American companies in the region, and supporting tens of thousands of new jobs in the U.S. defense industrial base."

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President Trump receives honor at Saudi royal palace on his 1st foreign trip

by ABC news Alexander Mallin and Adam Kelsey -

President Trump on his first foreign trip has arrived at the Royal Court Palace in Saudi Arabia where he will begin a full day of meetings with the country's royalty. The president was greeted by King Salman and honored with an elaborate red carpet ceremony. A Saudi military band then played the Star-Spangled Banner. The White House staff with the president -- Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Joe Hagin, Hope Hicks, Dan Scavino, Sean Spicer and Dina Powell -- all shook hands with Trump and King Salman as they arrived. Trump was also presented with the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Saudi nation's highest honor. After the award was bestowed, the president and king spoke briefly. Their conversation at one point touched on Syria, with King Salman heard noting that the now war-torn country used to be an advanced nation and pondering how quickly a country can be destroyed.

"Syria too used to be one of the most advanced countries," the king said. "We used to get our professors from Syria. They served our kingdom. Unfortunately, they too brought destruction to their own country. You could destroy a country in mere seconds, but it takes a lot of effort." President Donald Trump arrived in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh Saturday morning, marking the kick-off of his first foreign trip as president.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The ceremony at the palace came after the president and first lady Melania Trump landed at King Khalid International Airport around 9:45 a.m. local time after an overnight flight from Washington on Air Force One.The Trumps descended down a set of stairs from the plane onto a red carpet, where they were greeted by King Salman. Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Trump exited the jet from the back steps, prior to the president. Ivanka wore an ankle-length dresss

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

At the airport, King Salman joined the president for a walk down a red carpet, with the Saudi Royal Guard lined up at attention along either side with trumpets playing. Jets also flew overhead, leaving behind a stream of smoke in red, white and blue. The first lady followed behind, dressed in a flowing black jumpsuit and a gold belt.The president and first lady then walked into the terminal where a coffee reception with King Salman was held. The pair spoke through an interpreter inside the terminal, according to The Associated Press.

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Dine like a king: Here is what President Trump had for lunch in Saudi Arabia

by Arab News

RIYADH: US President Donald Trump Saturday dined at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh during an official luncheon hosted by King Salman.
Arab News can reveal that the American president, his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka were treated to an extravagant meal, replete with cuisines from around the world. First up on the mouthwatering menu was a Sicilian caponata and burrata salad, drizzled with basil-infused oil. Caviar with lemon-scented cream was also offered up as a tantalizing starter. To follow, the guests enjoyed parmesan risotto with foie gras.
The main course was a sumptuous treat for the palate as guests were offered lamb cutlets with sundried tomato puree and an array of side dishes.
Perhaps new for the Trump family was the inclusion of typically Saudi fare such as the rice and chicken dish Kabsa, and a rice-based recipe from the western coast of the country called sayadia with najil. Any guests with a sweet tooth would not have been disappointed with the date ice cream and date juice that was offered to those who attended the luncheon.