A leading hotelier warned Thursday of grave consequences to Lebanon’s hotel industry if the crisis in Syria persists. “If the situation in Syria remains the same, the hotel industry will be in real danger because many hotels witnessed a sharp drop in their business this year, [with] many of them indebted to banks,” co-owner of the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel Marwan Salha told The Daily Star in an interview.

Salha said banks might be able to support hotels in the near future but he doubted they’d be able to do it for too long. He argued that although the Central Bank gave subsidized loans, these were too small relative to the investments made by hotels. “For instance, a $10 million loan for a hotel such as Phoenicia is nothing,” he said. [Link]