The latest addition to the drive to boost Lebanon’s tourism potential is an initiative to revive the long-defunct website of the tourism ministry, reported the Daily Star newspaper on Saturday.
One Estate, a private company with a patriotic streak, offered to revamp the ministry’s site www.lebanon-tourism.gov.lb free of charge, said the paper.
Tourism Minister Karam Karam said Thursday that the government had accepted the bid.
“The company will offer us this site for free, and we thank them for their noble intention to aid the state,” Karam said.
One Estate is a new Lebanese firm for online real estate services and related e-commerce.
Its founders, Chahe Yerevanian and Youssef Tohme, have a background in construction and real estate development. The oneestate.com site is arranged by geography and features basic information about the country.
During promotional work in February, Yerevanian spoke of the firm’s double intent of creating a profitable site providing Lebanese, regional and international real estate listings, and of “giving something back to the country.”
The company saw its main challenge in building a brand identity.
The ministry’s website has been accessible and features prominently when one uses international search engines using the key words “tourism Lebanon.”
The site, however, was never fully developed and has been frozen at a 1997 information level, the paper said – Albawaba.com
