Could sun-soaked Libya be the Mediterranean's next tourism hot spot?

msnbc.com U.S. & World News

March 14, 2012 at 6:33 AM ET

Libya has all it takes to become a vacation paradise: 1,300 miles of palm-fringed coastline, five world-class cultural heritage sites and an attractive historic quarter in Tripoli featuring fine colonial buildings.

What is doesn’t have, though, is tourists.

But following the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, there are plenty of reasons for hotels and tour operators to be optimistic.

Alexandre Meneghini / AP, file

People relax on the beach in Tripoli, Libya, Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

Soaked in sun, the country's position at the meeting point of the desert landscape of the Sahara and the Mediterranean makes it ideal for trekking and windsurfing.

Libya's extraordinary history and ancient archaeological riches -- it boasts five United Nations world cultural heritage sites, including the remains of the Roman Empire outpost Leptis Magna and the Greek Hellenic city of Cyrene -- are its primary attractions.

It was off-limits for decades as a pariah state thanks to Gadhafi’s involvement in global terrorism, but a thaw in relations with Western countries saw a 14 per cent rise in visitor numbers between 2006 and 2010 and a 30 per cent jump in hotel revenue over the same period from $49 million to $65 million, according to analysts Euromonitor.

'Big expectations'
That tourism renaissance was all but destroyed by the Arab Spring uprising and subsequent civil war, but there are hopes it could resume and emulate the success of other recovering war zones: theNew York Times three years ago named Beirut as its number one global destination.

In Tripoli, the Rixos Al Nasr hotel -- where journalists were trapped during last August’s fierce fighting –- is open and full of guests, and its owners say they have “big expectations” in the coming months.

One small group is this week exploring the country on a trip organized by Political Tours, a specialist firm run by former New York Times Balkans correspondent Nicholas Wood, while managers at Simoon Travel, a British operator that organizes tours of the Middle East and North Africa, are visiting later this month with a view to restarting its Libya itineraries.

“We are optimistic because reports suggest most of the monuments and ancient sites have been left undamaged by the NATO bombing,” Simoon’s managing director Amelia Stewart told msnbc.com. “It is such a fascinating and diverse country and we would like to offer trips once it is safe enough to do so.”

Youssef Boudlal / Reuters, file

A view of Leptis Magna, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, some 120 km (75 miles) east of Tripoli, November 8, 2011. Libya was home to thriving Roman outposts beginning around the first century A.D. One Roman emperor, Septimius Severus, was born in Leptis Magna, on the site of the modern Libyan town of Khoms. He turned his hometown into a model Roman city and large parts of it are still intact. Picture taken November 8, 2011. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal (LIBYA - Tags: SOCIETY CONFLICT)

Access to the country is slowly improving following the end of NATO airstrikes that drove out Gadhafi’s regime: United Airlines partner British Midland International resumes direct flights to Tripoli from London Heathrow later this month, while British Airways will return to the city from May 1.

Libya begins battle to seize $20 billion in Gadhafi assets

Business travelers still account for the majority of visitors as the oil industry returns, but huge problems remain. The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is struggling to impose its authority on a country awash with weapons and militias have stepped into the vacuum, carving the country into local fiefdoms.

“Each area has its own guys who consider themselves in charge, which creates a huge security problem,” Wood said. “That lack of co-ordination, added to bureaucracy, makes Libya a very difficult place to visit for the time being.”

Many Western hotel chains that opened in anticipation of a tourism boom remain closed for the time being. The Marriott in Tripoli is not accepting reservations, while a spokeswoman for New York-based Starwood Hotels said it did not yet have a reopening date for its Four Points by Sheraton in the city.

Goran Tomasevic / REUTERS

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (LIBYA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Mustafa Özbinici, spokesman for the Turkish owners of the Rixos Al Nasr, said: “Libya is a intact country tourism-wise, with 2,200 kilometers [1,367 miles] of sea shore, so we believe that it will be a good development in long term. We have big expectations with Libya.

A year on, Libyans enjoy freedoms but anxieties abound

“However, there are some difficulties still remaining, especially the process of reorganization. As a company, we are trying to support people of Libya during this hard time including the injured people and their families.”

The threat of sporadic violence has also pushed up the cost of travel insurance, putting tours firmly into the "niche" market: Simoon’s cheapest package starts at about $2,000. “We will have security staff with us,”Wood added.

Tourism ministers from across the Middle East will meet on April 30 for a special summit between the Arabian Travel Market and the World Tourism Organization to drive forward tourism in the wake of the Arab Spring.

“Prior to the onset of violence, the government had finally developed a Tourism Master Plan for 2009-2013, with some vision expressed about the much longer-term, through to 2025,” Nadejda Popova, tourism analyst with Euromonitor, told msnbc.com.

Christian war graves desecrated in Libya

“Investment started pouring into the country’s travel and tourism industry, with more than six 5-star hotels planned in Tripoli as well as ambitious development plans for airports, ports, roads and rail projects linking Libya to its neighbors. However, the future is now uncertain and Libya’s travel and tourism industry is expected to suffer losses for at least another two years. There is a great deal of reconstruction needed, and efforts will be geared towards getting the country back on its feet before engaging in more tourism developments.”

Without a government strategy for the industry, growth is likely to be slow. Tourism and leisure has never accounted for than one per cent of consumer spending in Libya, compared to the global average of 16 per cent, according to Popova.

But one thing seems certain: Libya is unlikely to follow north African neighbors such as Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco into mass tourism. “I doubt it will ever have resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh,” said Stewart. “Libya has always been careful to ensure it doesn’t end up with an industry catering for those wanting sun and cheap booze.”

'There will be no alcohol'
Her view was echoed by the Giuma Bukleb, media attaché to the Libyan Embassy in London. He told msnbc.com: “We will never be like other countries with lots of big resort hotels, and there will be no alcohol. We want to encourage people to see our heritage sites.”

He added: “We are very keen to welcome tourists but maybe the time is not right just now. We have to get the country back on its feet first.”

Sarkozy denies Gadhafi gave his campaign $65 million

There are other practical hurdles: visitors must still apply in advance for a visa, rather than making arrangements on arrival as is the case in Egypt. And most countries, including the United States, require travelers to inform their local embassy in Libya about their trip.

“Libya has such incredible potential but there is a long way to go,” Wood said.

Ireland calls the diaspora home with The Gathering

18 hours ago

Helen O'Neill / AP

Marie Theresa Gill, center, poses with her friends Kathleen Greenhough, right, and Mary Murray at the pier in Dun Laoghaire in Dublin County, after a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the so-called "Forgotten Irish," the thousands of young Irish who emigrated to Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Gill and Greenhough were among those emigrants.

DUBLIN -- The tall ships looked majestic as they sailed into the bay — replicas of the masted, rigged vessels that once transported millions of emigrants from these shores.

The ships had departed from Liverpool, England, three days earlier, carrying descendants of Irish emigrants in a reverse voyage billed as an opportunity to "Sail Home to Your Roots." A crowd on the docks cheered as they entered Dublin port and the crew unfurled a giant green banner with the words, "Welcome to Our Gathering."

The May voyage was just one event among thousands taking place throughout Ireland, part of an ambitious yearlong tourism drive to boost the country's battered economy by luring its diaspora home.

Helen O'Neill / AP

Five-year-old Callum MacCobb poses with his flag on Dublin docks as he greets the tall ships sailing into the port. The ships were replicas of vessels that once carried millions of emigrants away from Ireland to seek fortune elsewhere.

Billed as The Gathering, the initiative is really multiple gatherings, large and small, ranging from the cultural and historic to the sporting, the quirky and the poignant.

"Bring them home. Treat them well. The Gathering is 'Project Ireland.' Do your bit," Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny exhorted fellow countrymen and women when the initiative was launched earlier in the year.

In every county, town and parish it seems that some group has taken his words to heart.

Highlights include flagship events like a July 21 Riverdance extravaganza, in which 2,013 master dancers are expected to kick up their heels along the banks of Dublin's River Liffey and attempt to break the world record for step-dancing. The last record was set in Nashville with 632 dancers in 2011.

Popular annual cultural events such as the Galway Arts Festival, the Cork Jazz Festival and the Dingle Tradfest are all incorporating "gathering" programs, as are big sporting events. Choral gatherings are huge. It seems like every little village or town is hosting a gathering and inviting choirs from Europe and the U.S. to join them.

There are busking gatherings and blacksmith gatherings, scientist gatherings and even an "Evil Eye" spiritual gathering in Donegal in August.

There are quirky gatherings to raise money for charity — for example the redhead convention in Cork in August. And bog-snorkeling, sheaf-tossing and welly-throwing (Wellington rubber boots) gatherings.

The goal, tourism officials say, is to tap into the estimated 70 million people who claim Irish descent worldwide and bring at least 350,000 additional tourists home.

From around the world, they are heeding the call.

A gang of London ex-pats has organized a bike ride from Trafalgar Square to Killorglin, County Kerry, in time for the annual three-day Puck Fair in August. Reputed to be the oldest fair in Ireland, the highlight is catching a wild mountain goat and crowning it King Puck.

Legend has it that during the 17th century, a goat broke away from its herd to warn the town of the advancing army of English commander Oliver Cromwell during his conquest of Ireland.

A group of Irish emigrants living in Toronto who, partly out of homesickness, organized a club there to play camogie, is returning as part of an international camogie gathering at the end of July. (The sport of camogie is women's hurling.)

The event includes matches in Dublin's Croke Park stadium, hallowed ground for the Gaelic Athletic Association, Ireland's biggest sporting organization.

"To come home and play in Croke Park is like a dream come true," said camogie player Marie O'Riordan, who emigrated to Toronto from Cork in 2009. "It's a fantastic way for emigrants like us to keep the connection and be part of something positive for our country."

But The Gathering has its share of critics too, notably actor Gabriel Byrne, who spent two years as Ireland's cultural ambassador to the U.S. In interviews last year, he dismissed the initiative as a cynical government effort to "shake down" emigrants "for a few quid."

Whether the effort can draw enough tourists to dent Ireland's economic woes remains to be seen. Ireland has been in economic turmoil since the real estate boom collapsed in 2008. Unemployment stands near 14 percent and emigration is once again commonplace among the young.

Regardless of the economic backdrop, there seems plenty of good will toward gatherings — gratitude even, that they are showcasing aspects of Irish heritage that might otherwise be bypassed by tourists.

Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, for example, is hosting gathering-related "Family Weeks" urging the numerous clans (O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Briens) to start their gatherings with a walking tour of the cemetery and a visit to its unique museum. The cemetery staff is also offering expert help in tracing kin.

The gated 1832 cemetery with its soaring Celtic crosses and lush grounds (it was designed as a garden as well as a burial place) is a gold mine for anyone interested in Irish history. It was founded by Irish politician Daniel O'Connell (known as "The Liberator" for championing the right of Catholics to vote) and a giant round tower above his crypt dominates the grounds. Visitors can enter the crypt and stop by the graves of other historical figures including 19th century nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell (dubbed the "uncrowned King of Ireland"), and founders of the modern Irish state, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins.

The great houses, castles and gardens of Ireland are also celebrating The Gathering with additional tours and lectures like the recent "tracing your Wicklow roots" talk by genealogist Nicola Morris at the Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry, County Wicklow.

With stunning views of the Wicklow Mountains and vast ornate gardens reminiscent of Versailles, the 18th century estate (originally a 13th century castle) is often described as Ireland's most beautiful. The great house burned down in 1974 and much of the interior was destroyed; today there's a gift shop and cafe on site and visitors can spend an entire day exploring the grounds — over 47 acres (19 hectares) of formal gardens, sweeping terraces, statues, ornamental lakes and trails.

South of Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains once provided a haven for rebels fighting British rule. Morris' lecture focused on their stories and on helping attendees trace their connections to some of the historical characters, Irish and English.

While The Gathering has been a boon for her profession, Morris views it as more than just an economic initiative.

"There is a wonderful, grass roots nature to it all," she said. "It's a mixture of history and culture and community spirit and just giving emigrants a great big welcome home."

Perhaps that spirit is most evident in some of the more poignant gatherings, like a recent reunion of the so-called "Forgotten Irish" in the harbor town of Dun Laoghaire, seven miles (11 kilometers) south of Dublin. Hard times in the 1950s and 1960s drove thousands of young Irish to emigrate, catching the ferry to Britain in search of jobs. Many spent their working lives sending money to support their families in Ireland, yet unable to afford to return themselves. As part of The Gathering, a group of volunteers sponsored about 50 elderly emigrants on a weeklong visit home — a trip that included an emotional wreath-laying ceremony next to a plaque in their honor on Dun Laoghaire pier.

Huddled in the wind beneath an Irish flag, they proudly sang the national anthem, "Amhran na bhFiann", and recalled painful farewells decades earlier.

"There were tears then and there are tears now," said Mary Carrick, 70, as she remembered the summer day in 1967 when she clutched her suitcase and waved to her parents as the ferry pulled out to sea.

"The Gathering," she said, "is a wonderful way to remember our contribution and to welcome us home."

TSA scuttles plan to allow small knives on planes

17 hours ago

FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP - Getty Images

Flight attendants for U.S. airlines hold banners and placards while picketing at Los Angeles International Airport's departure level demanding that small knives be kept out of their cabins on April 1, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

The head of the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday he's dropping a proposal that would have let airline passengers carry small knives, souvenir bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes.

"After extensive engagement with the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, law enforcement officials, passenger advocates, and other important stakeholders, TSA will continue to enforce the current prohibited items list," a TSA spokesperson told NBC News. "TSA’s top priority continues to be expansion of efforts to implement a layered, Risk-Based Security approach to passenger screening while maximizing resources. "

The proposal had drawn fierce opposition from lawmakers, airlines and others who said it would place passengers and crews at risk.

"We commend the TSA for revising its policy," Veda Shook, president of the Association of Flight Attendants International, which actively campaigned against knives being allowed on planes, told NBC News. "Terrorists armed only with knives killed thousands of Americans on 9/11/2001. As the women and men on the front lines in the air, we vowed to do everything in our power to protect passengers and flight crews from harm and prevent that type of atrocity from happening ever again."

“This decision is the right one for the safety and security of every Transportation Security Officer, airline passenger and aviation employee,” American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement.

“We applaud this as a victory for common sense,” Gregg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association told NBC News.

Last month 145 House members signed a letter asking Pistole to keep the current policy that bars passengers from carrying aboard knives and other items.

"The writing was on the wall," Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants told NBC News. "We are very happy that the TSA is not moving forward."

When Pistole released the proposal in March, he said the knives couldn't enable terrorists to cause a plane to crash.

TSA screeners confiscate over 2,000 of the small folding knives a day from passengers.

NBC News contributor Harriet Baskas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sharks worth more for tourism than in soup: study

May 31, 2013 at 9:35 AM ET

Paul Hilton / AFP - Getty Images

In a handout photo taken on July 8, 2012 and released on July 9 by WildAid, US Actress Maggie Q swims with an endangered whale shark off Cancun, Mexico.

Sharks swimming free in the oceans may soon become more valuable as tourist attractions than when caught, sliced up and served in soup, a global study showed on Friday.

It urged better protection for the fish, from Australia to the Caribbean, to reduce catches of an estimated 38 million a year to meet demand for shark fin soup, mainly in China.

"We are hoping that people will recognize that sharks are not only valuable on the plate," lead author Andres Cisneros-Montemayor of the University of British Columbia in Canada said.

Shark-watching tourism generates about $314 million a year and is projected to surge to $780 million in the next 20 years, according to the study in the journal Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation.

By contrast, the landed value of world shark fisheries is now $630 million a year and has been declining, according to the experts in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

In recent years Palau, the Maldives, Honduras, Tokelau, The Bahamas, the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and New Caledonia have created sanctuaries by banning commercial shark fishing.

"Many countries have a significant financial incentive to conserve sharks and the places where they live," said Jill Hepp, director of global shark conservation at the Pew Charitable Trusts which took part in the study. Pew urged more sanctuaries.

The study is one of many about how to aid world fisheries, hit by pollution and over-fishing. Tourism draws almost 600,000 people annually to watch sharks from hammerheads to great whites, supporting 10,000 jobs in 29 countries, it said.

One problem is the separate sources of demand - Asian lovers of shark fin soup are unlikely to abandon the dish in favor of tourism, which has so far been mainly for Westerners.

Fishermen need to see a higher value from organizing tourism - such as running boat trips to view sharks or renting scuba gear - than from killing them for fins, said Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of the global marine program at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which was not involved in the study.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.