by Nabila Rahhal

Someone must have been smiling down at
Lebanon this past December. For the first time in at least five years,
it snowed early enough in the year that the Cedars Ski Resort –  home
to Lebanon’s highest accessible peak at an altitude of 2,870m – began
welcoming skiers on December 4 with the country’s remaining ski resorts
following suit a few days after (all ski resorts were open by December
19). The slopes were in full swing over the winter break and
therefore able to benefit from the increased activity brought on by
locals, expats, Lebanese on holiday and some tourists, launching the
2016-2017 ski season on the right foot.

The snow economy

If the weather continues to bring in
snow, this could be one of Lebanon’s best ski seasons in a while. This
means that not only will resort operators reap in the profits of a full
season, but so will the various businesses surrounding the resorts that
range from the small grocery store owner to the five star hotel
operator. During the winter season, the economy of the resort towns is snow-centric. As a spokesperson for  Kfardebian’s
renowned French restaurant Le Montagnou puts it: “It’s very simple:
when there is snow, we all – the village and all the restaurants – work
extremely well and are busy. When there’s no snow, we suffer.” But with
the ski season lasting two months at best in recent years, resort owners
have realized that for them to remain in business, they have to promote
themselves as a summer destination as well. With these dynamics in mind, Executive
took a closer look at some of Lebanon’s leading ski resorts to discuss
their achievements to date and their expectations for the rest of the
season and the summer.

Skiing among the Cedars

The Cedars Ski Resort is Lebanon’s oldest ski destination.
As the owner of Cedars’ Alpine hotel Joseph Rahme recalls, wealthy
Palestinians used to visit Lebanon in the 1920s and enjoy winter
activities such as snowshoeing in the Cedars even before a proper ski
resort was set up. The first téléskis – or T-bar ski lift – was installed in
1959 by Les Teleskis Des Cedres (Cedars Ski Resort), a company formed by
four friends (from the families Fakhry, Keyrouz, Rahme and Sukkar) who
rented the land where the resort currently stands from the municipality
under a long-term contract. Today, their children have taken over
management of the company. In 2004, the company invested $20 million
into a complete modernization of the ski resort, including installing
three new chairlifts and other modern equipment. A five star hotel, a
few restaurants and a baby ski area were part of the second phase of
renovation plans, but this all came to a halt with the onset of the 2006
July War.

Ever since the war, the low level of activity in the
resort along with the internal instabilities and regional insecurities
that surround Lebanon have discouraged the company from further
investment or completing their plans. “As partners, we work in the
resort and somehow make ends meet, but we have not returned our 2004
initial investment and are now investing only in the basic operational
needs,” explains Elie Fakhry, one of the current owners, adding that it
is all the more difficult to consider spending more on such a project
when it is only seasonal.

Yet, Fakhry sees hope for the resort and
the area for several reasons. To begin with, he believes there is
renewed interest in the Cedars and speaks of the increased activity in
the area during the summer due to the Cedar Music Festival, which was
brought back by Strida Geagea in July 2016 after a long absence. Indeed,
Alpine’s Rahme says his hotel was fully booked during the nights of the
festival. Also, a 150,000 square meter chalet resort project –
rumored to be a joint venture between Saradar Group and Carlos Ghosn –
already broke ground and has Fakhry hoping it will help attract other
investors to the area once complete, thereby increasing the land value. Finally, the election of a president and the stability
that Lebanon seems to have been enjoying since could encourage tourists
to return, many of whom frequented the Cedars given its nearby
attractions such as the Cedars of God forest or the Gibran Khalil Gibran
museum.

However, should these tourists flock to the resort to ski
it would require a major upgrade in infrastructure. The roads leading to
the resort are narrow, so the company has already worked with the
municipality on rerouting them to allow for better traffic flow. While
the resort can accommodate 8,000 skiers, the parking lot can only fit a
few hundred cars and would need expanding.

As such, Fakhry says they are now looking for potential
investors to help them complete their plans for the resort. “We are
talking to investors from the area and there are some who are interested
in large scale projects like this. We don’t have a problem partnering
up with another company if it means that the resort and area will be
revitalized. Projects like this can increase the economic activity in
the area a lot and that’s what we want for Bcharre,” explains Fakhry.

The majority of those who frequent the Cedars Ski Resort today are from the surrounding areas. While skiers do
sometimes come from Beirut, Fakhry says the two hour drive somewhat
obliges them to sleep in the area. He also adds that only around ten of
the hotels and motels in the area are considered to be good quality,
with prices ranging from $170 to $250.

Besides skiing, other winter related activities that can
be enjoyed in the Cedars include snowshoeing, cross country skiing and
snowmobiling ($30 for a 30 minute ride).

Standing at the slopes overlooking the Qadisha Valley and
the Cedars Forest, one is struck by the sheer beauty of the area – and
the very real potential that exists among its snow covered mountains.

The modern resort

Zaarour Club lies on 2.5 million square meters of privately owned land in the Metn area of Zaarour (just under Mount Sannine).

The company, which originally was mainly owned by Michel
and Gabriel el-Murr, operated the ski resort until being forced to close
down when it was badly damaged with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War
in the late 1970s. While the resort reopened in the 1990s, it only had
basic facilities and primarily attracted customers from the nearby
community.

In 2012, Gabriel bought his brother’s shares in the resort
and became the majority owner of Zaarour Club, the company that today
owns and operates the ski facilities and related activities in the
resort. New construction work began in 2013, and to date more than $40
million has been invested into turning Zaarour Club into a state of the
art ski resort complete with modern amenities and conveniences, explains
Carol el-Murr, chairperson and CEO of Zaarour Club.

The clubhouse itself – the building that skiers enter to
access the slopes – gives off a modern and fresh vibe with elements
ranging from the elevators and escalators that take skiers directly to
the skiing area to the spacious food court that includes Classic Burger
Joint and a snack booth serving healthy options such as salads and
wraps.

The slopes themselves include four chairlifts which Murr
describes as “detachable” (meaning they slow down enough for the skier
to comfortably get on or off) and a rolling carpet that helps young
skiers safely access the baby ski area.

Since the highest peak in Zaarour Club is at an altitude
of 1,800 meters, Murr explains that they invested in the sole
snow-making machine in Lebanon that produces artificial snow to
supplement the natural snow when patches begin to show.

  The resort
also features a 16-room boutique hotel, Le Grand Chalet, which Murr says
has been fully booked on weekends ever since they opened for the
season, two fine dining restaurants – one in the hotel itself – and La
Cabine Du Chef, a French restaurant.

The Zaarour Club also created an
artificial lake surrounded by a promenade, where the Zaarour Summer
Festival was held last year. Murr says it will be used for similar
events this summer in an attempt to make the resort a year round
destination and build up a sense of community.

A full day of skiing for adults on
weekends in Zaarour Club costs $42, with children under 12 charged $30.
As well as strapping on the skis, other snow related activities on offer
include tubing and sledding. Murr describes this as their first full
season and says it has been very successful with an average of 1,500
skiers on an average day.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Zaarour
Club is that the surrounding area is still largely underdeveloped. The
land itself has some privately owned chalets from the 1990s on the lower
half (which is not part of the club) and Murr says Zaarour Club is
constructing 40 chalets – half of which have already been sold – but few
properties or construction sites can be seen on the road leading up to
Zaarour. Also, there are only around a dozen restaurants or cafes in
proximity to the resort.

Murr explains that since the resort has
only recently been renovated, it will take some time for the area to
pick up when it comes to après ski, but that there are already investors
developing such destinations.

“There is a future for the area seeing as
the renovated resort has only been functioning for a year or two. This
will slowly develop with time and there are already six to seven
residential and hospitality projects being built around the resort
area,” says Murr.

Murr sees Zaarour Club’s proximity to
Beirut through the Metn highway as an advantage, making it an accessible
option for those who don’t want to get stuck in traffic. “There is an
opportunity or place for everyone, given the number of people who like
to ski in Lebanon,” she concludes.

The larger than life resort

With more than 100 kilometers of ski runs and 20
chairlifts, Mzaar Ski Resort in Kfardebian is Lebanon’s largest and most
developed ski resort. As such, it is also the busiest, with Nicole
Wakim, marketing and development manager for the Mzaar  Ski
Resort operating company, saying they get up to 7,000 skiers on a sunny
weekend (the resort can accommodate up to 8,000 skiers).

This year, the resort added another ski run, The Falcon,
at an altitude of 2,111 meters above sea level. “Its purpose was to
alleviate the whole domain so that if it doesn’t snow enough at the
bottom slopes, we will compensate with the higher up slopes. But so far
this season there was no need and we opened them all,” says Wakim.

Mzaar Resort is also the most expensive among the ski
resorts Executive spoke to, with a weekend day of skiing costing $66 for
adults and $52 for children. For those that don’t want to ski, snow
mobiles are a popular activity, with prices starting at $40 for a 30
minute ride.

Some don’t indulge in any winter activities, but instead
visit Kfardebian to enjoy the ambiance and play with the snow. This has
added to the traffic flow problem, “I believe our biggest problem today
is the heavy traffic leading to and from the resort on weekends and
holidays, which is due to the many buses and minivans as well as cars
unequipped to drive on snow or ice. This causes a lot of frustration for
all visitors to Mzaar ski resort,” says Joost Komen, general manager of
the InterContinental Mzaar.

This issue was also discussed by
Josephine Zgheib, spokesperson for the municipality of Kfardebian, who
says they are working with the municipal police and the Internal
Security Forces to organize traffic and prevent large, ill-equipped
busses from accessing the road.

The après ski life is also well developed
in Kfardebian, with the resort itself including a five star hotel, The
InterContinental Mzaar, which boasts 140 rooms (29 of which are suites)
and a few restaurants including Olio Igloo, an Italian restaurant-lounge
bar.

The resort aside, Kfardebian has around
50 hospitality outlets including hotels, restaurants and cafes,
according to Zgheib. For those who wish to rent a chalet for the season
instead, Zgheib says there are around 20 chalet complexes in the area.

To further develop the après ski life,
Mzaar Resort has developed a full calendar of events that include their
annual winter festival and a fashion show on the snow, explains Wakim.
“The events help us keep the vibes strong
continuously. We are working on Mzaar as a [tourist] destination and
although winter is our champion horse, we are working toward making it a
summer destination as well.” Wakim says that their summer festival has
become a widely popular event that brings life to the area over a
several days in August, but they are planning to organize more summer
activities to have a sustainable season beyond these few days.

The ski season’s early start this year
has benefitted the resort and Kfardebian itself, with Wakim saying that
the resort’s hotel and many surrounding restaurants were fully booked on
the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, despite the poor weather over
the holiday period.

Although it is still too early to speak
in terms of concrete tourist numbers, Wakim believes that more Arab Gulf
nationals were on the slopes this year than last year. While Komen
agrees, he is still holding out for even more tourists in February, when
schools around the world take time off to go skiing. “I believe it is
still too early to tell the percentage rate of foreign tourists compared
to local tourists as the season has just started. Moreover, we have
seen many Lebanese living abroad coming to visit their home country, and
they are considered foreign tourists. But to give a first impression of
foreigners compared to Lebanese nationals, I would say 15 percent of
the visitors are foreigners and 85 percent are Lebanese or of Lebanese
descent,” elaborates Komen.

Only time can tell
whether this winter season will be able to enjoy the arrival of foreign
tourists, or whether it will continue to be dependent on the local
community. But one thing is for sure: the snowcapped Lebanese mountains
are breathing much needed hope and positivity into the country’s ski resorts and surroundings.