The purpose of this research is to determine Lebanese tourism industry’s competitiveness compared to its major rivals, i.e. Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. First of all, Lebanese tourism industry was evaluated through obtained information from secondary sources (i.e. bank reports, Ministry of Tourism reports). Then, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (2015) is used to compare the global rankings of Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. And finally, questionnaire analysis was carried out to understand people’s perception towards these countries. Findings revealed that the tourists’ inflow to Lebanon has witnessed a constant decrease since the emergence of the Arab Spring while it demonstrated its second annual upturn in 2015. However, overall ranking in the globalised world showed that Lebanon is in the last position compared to its rivals. Findings also indicated that despite having worse results compared to its rivals in factors like business environment, human resources, labour market and ICT readiness, Lebanon confirmed a better standing in health and hygiene and performed better than Egypt in safety and security matters. It was also proven by this study that Lebanon is performing either similarly or better in factors like mild climate, image, leisure attractions, educational and multilingual workforce, regional competition and environment protection. However, conversely, it demonstrated either bad or worse performance in factors like eco-tourism, world class hotels and airports, natural environment, cost of accommodation and natural heritage. Moreover, the results of the research showed that the competitive position of Lebanese tourism is not the same in different international markets.
Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Lebanon, Tourism Competitiveness
