Libya welcomes back tourists after years of war
Jean-Paul, a French traveller who first visited Libya over a decade ago, was one of about 100 largely European tourists on the trip.
Libya has welcomed its first international tourists in a decade, on a trip to an oasis village deep in the desert that had previously been closed to outsiders due to years of conflict.
Jean-Paul, a French traveller who first visited Libya over a decade ago, was one of about 100 largely European tourists on the trip.
He expressed his desire to return to the’magnificent nation, with spectacular beauty and very welcoming people,’ which he described as “magnificent.”
A private Libyan organization organized the first organized visit of European visitors to Libya since 2012, with tens of people visiting Ghadames and other locations in the Libyan desert.
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A private Libyan organization organized the first organized visit of European visitors to Libya since 2012, with tens of people visiting Ghadames and other locations in the Libyan desert.
‘Events made it impossible for ten years,’ the 57-year-old explained, ‘but then we were told we could finally come back on a supervised trip with a security escort.’
‘The people here are quite kind, and you get the impression that Libyans are eager to see tourists again.’
As a convoy of hundreds of four-wheel-drives took the Italian, French, Icelandic, and Swiss visitors through town, police sirens rang across the oasis of Ghadames, its old white houses set amid a sea of palm trees.
During Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade dictatorship, Libya was generally off-limits to tourists.
Foreign visitors mainly stayed away after the tyrant was deposed in a 2011 revolt, as the country descended into anarchy and armed strife.
During Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade dictatorship, Libya was generally off-limits to tourists.
During Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade dictatorship, Libya was generally off-limits to tourists.
The first group of tourists to come since 2012 was able to do so today, courtesy to a year of relative calm following an October 2020 ceasefire and a United Nations-led peace process.
Ali al-Kouba, a tour guide, says he wants to ‘break the fear barrier’ for visitors to Libya’s enormous Sahara.
Giovanni Paolo, an Italian visitor and tour operator who was shielded from the desert wind by a Tuareg-style yellow scarf, concurred.
‘We were confident that we would be welcomed in this lovely country,’ he explained.
The guests traveled via a Tunisian border crossing that reopened in September after being closed for months due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Before venturing deep into the dunes and stony stretches of the southern Libyan countryside, they spent the night under the stars.
They finally arrived in Ghadames, the ‘jewel of the desert,’ about 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of Tripoli.
The UNESCO-listed oasis city, a pre-Roman Berber village and a vital halt on Saharan trade routes, features unusual multilevel architecture with whitewashed, covered lanes that are protected from the scorching summer sun.
Tourists strolled through the old city, photographing the classic buildings held up by palm trunks.
They also went to the newest side of town, where a mosque with impressive minarets stands next to modern villas that imitate the old town’s design.
‘Extremely warm and inviting’
Jean-Jacques Sire, a 67-year-old Frenchman with a white beard, said he visited Libya twice in the 1990s and encountered a “very welcoming population.”
‘I didn’t hesitate when I found out that there was a bunch of individuals willing to return,’ he said.
Since the mid-twentieth century, tourism has been a minor business in Libya, whose economy has been driven by oil and gas.
However, in the 2000s, it experienced a brief upsurge as the Kadhafi regime rebuilt links with the outside world, aided by the UN’s relaxation of sanctions, which included a flying ban, in 2003.
Tripoli also established a tourism ministry and issued tourist visas for the first time in 2010, allowing 110,000 foreign visitors to spend their vacation in the country and bringing in $40 million (34 million euros).
All of that came to a screeching halt in 2011 when an armed insurrection broke out.
Despite a year of relative peace, the country continues to suffer localized outbreaks of violence, and most countries caution their citizens against coming.
The tour’s organizer, Khaled Derdera, said he wants to refute the notion that Libya is a “declining country.”
‘The purpose of the trip was to bring back European tourists, and now they’re on Libyan land,’ he explained.
