30,000 Australians invade Lebanon – for a summer visit
Emigrants coming in record numbers
The Australian Embassy estimates that by the end of the summer season, at least 30,000 Australians will have visited Lebanon.
This is a higher figure than in previous years due to the improved security situation and suggests that Lebanese-Australians are returning to their home country for summer vacations in increasing numbers.
"This is the first summer since 2006 that large numbers of Australian tourists have felt safe enough to return to visit Lebanon on holiday," Australian Ambassador Lyndall Sachs told The Daily Star.
Speaking from the Australian Embassy in the Beirut Central District, Sachs emphasizes the importance of connections between the two countries. She feels that many Lebanese look to Australia as a "fine example" of a multicultural society, as they make strong attempts to build tolerance between their own communities.
The majority of Australians who travel to Lebanon have personal connections with the country. Large numbers of Lebanese migrated to Australia during the Civil War. This wave of migration continued afterward, with many people seeking greater economic opportunities or the prospect of joining family members in Australia.
Many of the Lebanese who migrated to Australia were from northern coastal cities and mountain regions, such as Tripoli and the Qadisha valley, as well as from Beirut.
Many Lebanese-Australians are dual citizens and choose to travel to the region on their Lebanese, rather than Australian, passports. The embassy concedes that this makes it difficult to know exactly how many Australians are in Lebanon at any given time.
The embassy also remains unaware of the travel plans of Australian nationals unless they choose to complete the voluntary online travel register. It does estimate, however, that the number of Australian tourists drops to 15,000 in the winter months.
Given their family connections, Australians such as Joseph Khachan return to Lebanon to visit relatives rather than to explore the country”s iconic sites as tourists.
After emigrating to Australia in 1967, Khachan has returned every year or two to visit remaining family and friends in Lebanon. Now retired, Khachan spends three months every summer in Ibrine, a village situated in the cool mountain air, a five-minute drive from Batroun.
"I like to be here to see family, friends and to enjoy myself," he says from his bungalow in the village.
While he enjoys these yearly vacations, Khachan concedes that his attachment to Lebanon has changed after living in Australia for over 41 years.
"Lebanon is my second country now," Khachan admits. "I am Australian."
Khachan”s two brothers and sister also moved to Australia, where his children were born and raised. He estimates that 15 percent of Ibrine”s approximately 8,000 residents have emigrated to Australia. Around half of these emigrants return to the village every year.
Khachan was one of the many Australian nationals who chose to remain in Lebanon during the July 2006 War. During this period, the Australian Embassy evacuated over 5,200 of the 25,000 Australians in Lebanon.
The Qadisha Valley also sees large numbers of Australians return during the summer months.
Homesick Australian visitors can shop at Bsharri”s "Kangaroo Supermarket" or stroll along Kfar Sghab”s Parramatta Road, named after a famous suburb in Sydney, Australia”s most populous city, which is now home to many Lebanese-Australians.
There are even large road-side advertisements along the valley rim offering translation assistance "for all your visa needs at the Australian Embassy."
Tony Tauk, a resident of the Qadisha valley”s largest town, Bsharri, and the capital of the qada, has 300 relatives living in Australia. These relatives return to Lebanon every one to five years and he estimates that 10 families have returned to Bsharri this summer.
Further along the Qadisha valley rim, Kfar Sghab”s Tony Maroun lived in Australia for 20 years. While Maroun has returned permanently to Lebanon, he suggests that approximately 15,000 people from the picturesque mountain region have emigrated to Australia.
Maroun estimates that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of every family in the small village of Kfar Sghab currently reside in Australia.
This emigration has left many of the small town”s houses empty except for the summer months, when 20 percent of these emigrants return and re-occupy their homes.
Maroun does not seem to mind. "We have a connection with Australia" he insists, proudly joking that Kfar Sghab”s residents spend more money in the village”s public phone booth calling Australian relatives than in any other town in Lebanon.
There is a longer connection between the two countries that extends beyond recent emigration trends.
Three plaques erected at the entrance to the Nahr al-Kalb valley commemorate the presence of the Australian armed forces in Lebanon. Australians entered Lebanon as part of a wider force in 1918. In 1941 the First Australian Corps captured Damour as part of a regional campaign that was "bringing freedom to Syria and The Lebanon," according to a second plaque.
Another plaque also commemorates the engineers of the Australian Railway Construction Group finished the Beirut to Tripoli railway line in 1942.
Unlike the military-related interactions of earlier connections between the two countries, tourism and visits to relatives will be Australia”s only interventions in Lebanon this summer.