“Lebanon Debate” – Samar Yamout
For a large segment of the Lebanese, entertainment is no longer a normal thing that can be easily deducted from the family budget. After securing housing, food, electricity, and medical expenses, a family outing, a meal in a restaurant, or a day at the sea become luxuries that may be shortened or replaced with less expensive options, or even canceled completely.
With the summer “shops”, spending a day at the beach or at one of the seaside resorts may seem like an ideal option for entertainment and escaping the heat, but for a Lebanese family of four or five people, a few hours at the sea may turn into a bill that burdens them.
Entrance prices to the least expensive swimming pools (outside the capital) start at about $15, and range in a large number of other swimming pools between $25 and $40, while reaching $50 or $60 per person in some well-known hotels and resorts, especially during the weekend.
The family is divided to save money
But these numbers do not remain just prices on entry regulations, but are directly reflected in the choices of families and the way they spend their vacation. This is what prompted Abu Hadi to adopt an unusual solution, when he decided to spend a day at the pool with his family. After it became clear to him that the entrance fee to one of the swimming pools in the Khaldeh area was between 20 and 25 dollars per person (depending on age), he decided to divide the family into two groups: he took two of his children, while he asked his two remaining children to spend the day with their mother at their grandmother’s house.
The father says that it cost him $65 for three people to enter the pool, add to that some food and drinks that he had to buy from inside the pool because “bringing food in is forbidden,” bringing the cost of one summer day to between $100 and $120. The following week, the same cost could be repeated for the rest of the family.
The problem for “Abu Hadi” is not the “day” of a single day, but rather the total amount he spends on entertainment during the month, which is the least that any ordinary, hard-working citizen should enjoy. The cost of two days at the pool and one lunch in a restaurant was equivalent to more than half of his monthly salary, and so he began to rely on “rotation” among his children instead of the family going out together.
Once a month
The accounts of Umm Rami, a mother of three children, do not differ much. After she used to try to allocate a day a week to go out with her children, now she chooses a day a month between the pool, a restaurant, or any other activity, after combining them in one month has become expensive. Therefore, she turned to less expensive options, such as the public beach, the mountain, or visiting relatives, considering that “entertainment has become an item that comes after paying basic obligations. If there is any left over from the salary, we leave, and if there is nothing left, we cancel the trip.”
More than $150 a day
By simple calculation, a family of four people, even when choosing a low- or medium-priced pool, needs about $80 to enter the low-priced pools, at least $40 for simple meals, and about $5 to buy drinking water, in addition to $20 for gasoline or transportation, meaning that the cost per day starts at about $125 and may reach $150.
As for the more expensive resorts, the entrance fee alone may reach $200 for a family of four, if the ticket price is $50 per person. With food, drinks, transportation, sunscreen supplies, etc., the bill can reach $400, depending on the location and level of spending.
The cost of entertainment does not stop at swimming pools alone. Eating lunch at a restaurant, attending a concert, or engaging in a tourist activity adds other burdens to the family budget, which raises the question, in a tourist season when restaurants and resorts seem crowded, who are able to bear these prices?
Operating costs increased
One of the owners of tourist resorts attributes the increase in prices to the increase in operating costs, starting with electricity, for which “we pay the bill twice, once for the state and once for private generators, in addition to the cost of installing solar energy, the necessity of providing hot water for bathrooms, and providing electricity around the clock for refrigerators and chalets.” He adds to this the cost of maintenance and labor and the rise in food prices, stressing that “part of these increases is directly reflected in the prices paid by the customer.” But what is striking, according to the resort owner, is that the number of customers has not declined much compared to last year, which he attributes mainly to “the movement that tourists and expatriates experience during the summer.”
“Dollarized” entertainment
Among the justifications of tourism establishment owners and families’ complaints about the high cost, the most prominent paradox remains the scene of full restaurants and resorts, despite the fact that entertainment has become beyond the reach of a wide segment of the Lebanese. How can this contradiction be explained economically?
Economist Walid Abu Suleiman explains to “Lebanon Debate” that the rise in entertainment prices is not only linked to increased demand, but also to a structural re-pricing of the Lebanese economy, after most of the operating costs, from food, energy and maintenance to wages and rents, became linked to the dollar. Institutions also raised their margins to compensate for part of the losses of the crisis years and the increase in operational risks.
Abu Suleiman believes that entertainment has become, to a large extent, a luxury for a specific group, after those who are able to spend more than those with income in dollars, along with expatriates and tourists. This reality, according to him, reflects a “two-speed economy,” the first enjoying dollar purchasing power, and the other relying on local incomes that have not caught up with price levels.
Therefore, filling restaurants and resorts does not necessarily mean an improvement in the purchasing power of the Lebanese, as it may reflect the strength of demand among a certain segment, but it is more able to spend. The economist concludes by saying that “the entertainment market in Lebanon has become more “dollarized” and selective, with demand more concentrated among those with dollar incomes, expatriates, and tourists.”
