LOST launches “Keep an eye on Hermel” campaign

 The youth of the “Advocacy Civic Initiatives in Baalbeck- Hermel” project  at LOST launched the “Keep your eyes on Hermel” campaign in a press conference on June 24th, 2012 at “El Dardara waterfall” café at El Assi- Hermel in the presence of many municipal and social figures.

After the Lebanese Anthem, Mr. Mohammad Allaw from LOST delivered a speech in which he affirmed that such campaign is the result of a qualitative study that reveals the problems of the tourism sector in Baalbeck- Hermel region such as: the absence of a touristic strategy in Baalbeck- Hermel region and the negative media.

Following Mr. Allaw’s speech, Ms. Fatima Hmadeh, one of the participants, delivered the press release in which the participants affirmed that this campaign aims at:

-    Showing the real image of Hermel as the city of beauty, heritage and culture and promoting this image all over Lebanon and outside.
-    Raising the awareness of local citizens on the importance of tourism.
-    Focusing on the positive role of media to develop a good image about Hermel.
In addition to calling on the officials in charge of the tourism sector in Lebanon to take active steps in improving the touristic sector in Baalbeck- Hermel region and ameliorating the touristic image of Hermel city.
Ms. Fatima indicated in the press release that all the mentioned objectives cannot be achieved without the direct coordination and cooperation among the responsibles for the touristic sector, the citizens and the tourists. So that, you are all invited to actively participate in the following activities:
-    Signing a petition to the Ministry of Tourism demanding to select a national day for tourism in Hermel and to add the city to the list of the Lebanese touristic cities.
-    Presenting a statement to the Hermel municipality demanding to enlighten, expand and pave El Assi Street.
-    Sending a letter to the Municipality of Hermel requesting the following:

1-    Selecting some members of “Municipal Police” as “Touristic police”
2-    Pricing fairly the touristic products
3-    Meeting with the local journalists in order to avoid the negative media and to focus on the positive media
4-    Organizing workshops with the owners of clubs and cafés in Hermel in order to improve the level of services and exchange experiences.

It is noteworthy that such campaign includes many other activities:
-    Sending  25000 messages all over Lebanon to advertise Hermel touristic locations
-    Preparing a short movie showing the most important touristic sites in Hermel and distributing the movie to the media.

The “Advocacy Civic Initiatives in Baalbeck-Hermel” is funded by the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the project is scheduled to end in July of 2012.