Booming tourist season
masks other grim reality

Middle East Eye

Across Beirut's coastline, hot summer nights are illuminated by packed nightclubs, where sweaty ravers dance to bass-heavy music until the sun comes up.

Nearby, people from Lebanon and across the world fill up the Gemmayzeh area's pubs and bars on an unusually noisy Monday night. The sound of pop music can be heard on every corner of the narrow streets, as travellers move from place to place trying to find a vacant table.

It's a scene that had more or less disappeared over the past couple of years in the Beirut neighbourhood, which still shows signs of damage by the 2020 port blast that flattened much of the area.

Even with the country still struggling through an economic crisis and political paralysis, its restaurant and pub owners now appear to be savouring a few cautious sighs of relief. FULL STORY