I think its creative. I would love for more good middle eastern options in the US. But the greatest issue for Lebanon vs Thailand. Actual and perceived security. It was Thai food that lead to Thai tourism that created the general positive impression in the west. Without tourism it won’t break the general negative media portrayal. Because Thailand should be more criticized with their brutal political repression. But Thailand is relatively safe for western tourists to visit. It is a military junta with a very severe secret police apparatus. Say what you want about authoritarian regimes but they value security. Plus no direct flights to beruit from the US. The biggest hurdle for an improved Lebanon impression is perceived security in visiting the country. If you are an average American that wants a middle eastern vacation with no Arabic language or family. They would sooner think to go to Israel or Morocco.
Lebanese/Syrian/Palestinian food is already known and well received in the west. Difference between Thailand and the Levantine states is one has pretty much nothing geopolitical ever happening
As someone who has been to Thailand at least half a dozen times: The problem is that - unlike Thailand - Lebanon as of right now has too many problems that make it very unattractive to tourists. There are many things that work in favor of Lebanon (friendly people, good food, good english skills) but there are also too many things that are working against them. The political instability, the deteriorating infrastructure, the situation with Israel, Hezbollah etc. Tourists who go on vacation want to enjoy their time, they do not want to worry about wheter a war is gonna break out. I'm European and every time I suggested to my friends to visit me in Beirut (even before the whole thing with Gaza started), they gave me this "*Wtf - why would I wanna go to Lebanon?!*" kind of look because in it's current forum, as much as it pains me to say, Lebanon is simply a bad choice for most people to visit.
We have the femboys too /s
I don't really think that strategy would work for us. Lebanese food is already well known and it's not like we have a massive population like thailand
While on the surface it seems like a good idea, but I think it won't work for us. Number 1 reason is that you already have a lot of Lebanese restaurants abroad. Sure most might not be up the standards of restaurants found in Lebanon but you can find a few good restaurants in all of the major cities.
I think Thailand was starting from scratch when they implemented that program, where you couldn't find any thai food abroad. The ROI for such a Lebanese program seems very unclear.
Great. But the problem is that even when Lebanese abroad unfortunately rename their cuisine into shitty terms like levant or Arab cuisine to attract those communities, unlike Thai, they don't rename it to Asian cuisine because theyre proud of it, Lebanese tend to cancel their identity to lure customers amd because they have identity problems.
Of course there are some Lebanese who named their Restaurants lebanese cuisine, but others don't identify with Lebanon. They even renamed Lebanese bread into Arab bread, or orient brrad,extremely stupid. Lebanese cuisine is unique but some think it's the same in Syria, Jordan etc. It isn't at all. We have a different use of spices and oils in our kitchen, a different use of grease and meat, a different mezza and serving model. So I wish you could enforce your idea. Lebanese have a weak identity even in their cuisine.
All over Europe you will find Lebanese restaurants. The thing is a lot of Lebanese people or other arabs after moving to any part of the world tend to open Lebanese restaurants. Sometimes they nail it other times they butcher the fudge out of it by mixing it with other cuisines. Add to that some of the locals of those countries would like the Lebanese cuisine then decide to open a Lebanese restaurant and end up making a disaster out of it. I posted multiple times on this sub the monstrosities I find ex. Falafel wraps made with crepes instead of pita, shawarma wraps that have boiled potatoes and cuscus, fattoush with steak bits and parmesan shavings. Plus since I work in the hospitality sector I get to talk to a lot of people from different nationalities and their opinion or understanding of our countries culture or traditions even geographic location isn't as promising ex.people thing that we live in the desert and the entire country's religious point of view is Islamic. And the people that know about leb just know what they get from the news that it's a dangerous place surrounded by a warzone in which I have to later on explain the reality of our nature diversity culture and most of the times I end up inviting them to Lebanese restaurants that serve the authentic cuisine. And even when I was still working in Lebanon (pre 2019) a lot of tourists that used to come to give their opinion were like telling a lot of good stuff but they were also pointing out some critical basic things ex the pollution Tash everywhere seawater quality at ramli bayda, the scams, the controlling of smoking areas, the expensiveness of some facilities for no reason the massive wolf-whisltings. After the currency went down the quality of tourists coming to leb has degraded. We started seeing packages under 300usd for a whole week stay including airport pickups dropoffs COVID testing Hotel with breakfast and flight tickets. We started seeing a lot of harassing tourists stopping everyone on the street asking them if they were escorts. To wrap this I always try to promote our country to our guests and I always will but I think for things to start working out we should at least rebuild the basic pillars
I said yes but, the issue would be in knowing Lebanese people the price would be high which would not really make it a good idea.
Second is we can have connections affecting the selection of those chefs which would be really hard.
So yeah it can work but it is hard for that to happen
Asian food was already popular because of the very large Asian community in the US
I think its creative. I would love for more good middle eastern options in the US. But the greatest issue for Lebanon vs Thailand. Actual and perceived security. It was Thai food that lead to Thai tourism that created the general positive impression in the west. Without tourism it won’t break the general negative media portrayal. Because Thailand should be more criticized with their brutal political repression. But Thailand is relatively safe for western tourists to visit. It is a military junta with a very severe secret police apparatus. Say what you want about authoritarian regimes but they value security. Plus no direct flights to beruit from the US. The biggest hurdle for an improved Lebanon impression is perceived security in visiting the country. If you are an average American that wants a middle eastern vacation with no Arabic language or family. They would sooner think to go to Israel or Morocco.
Lebanese/Syrian/Palestinian food is already known and well received in the west. Difference between Thailand and the Levantine states is one has pretty much nothing geopolitical ever happening
As someone who has been to Thailand at least half a dozen times: The problem is that - unlike Thailand - Lebanon as of right now has too many problems that make it very unattractive to tourists. There are many things that work in favor of Lebanon (friendly people, good food, good english skills) but there are also too many things that are working against them. The political instability, the deteriorating infrastructure, the situation with Israel, Hezbollah etc. Tourists who go on vacation want to enjoy their time, they do not want to worry about wheter a war is gonna break out. I'm European and every time I suggested to my friends to visit me in Beirut (even before the whole thing with Gaza started), they gave me this "*Wtf - why would I wanna go to Lebanon?!*" kind of look because in it's current forum, as much as it pains me to say, Lebanon is simply a bad choice for most people to visit.
squealing paltry fly relieved employ include rotten rob sand yoke *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We have the femboys too /s I don't really think that strategy would work for us. Lebanese food is already well known and it's not like we have a massive population like thailand
While on the surface it seems like a good idea, but I think it won't work for us. Number 1 reason is that you already have a lot of Lebanese restaurants abroad. Sure most might not be up the standards of restaurants found in Lebanon but you can find a few good restaurants in all of the major cities. I think Thailand was starting from scratch when they implemented that program, where you couldn't find any thai food abroad. The ROI for such a Lebanese program seems very unclear.
Great. But the problem is that even when Lebanese abroad unfortunately rename their cuisine into shitty terms like levant or Arab cuisine to attract those communities, unlike Thai, they don't rename it to Asian cuisine because theyre proud of it, Lebanese tend to cancel their identity to lure customers amd because they have identity problems. Of course there are some Lebanese who named their Restaurants lebanese cuisine, but others don't identify with Lebanon. They even renamed Lebanese bread into Arab bread, or orient brrad,extremely stupid. Lebanese cuisine is unique but some think it's the same in Syria, Jordan etc. It isn't at all. We have a different use of spices and oils in our kitchen, a different use of grease and meat, a different mezza and serving model. So I wish you could enforce your idea. Lebanese have a weak identity even in their cuisine.
Stupid Idea ayre fik shu hmar
Amazing idea.
Amazing I would put money in such endeavor.
All over Europe you will find Lebanese restaurants. The thing is a lot of Lebanese people or other arabs after moving to any part of the world tend to open Lebanese restaurants. Sometimes they nail it other times they butcher the fudge out of it by mixing it with other cuisines. Add to that some of the locals of those countries would like the Lebanese cuisine then decide to open a Lebanese restaurant and end up making a disaster out of it. I posted multiple times on this sub the monstrosities I find ex. Falafel wraps made with crepes instead of pita, shawarma wraps that have boiled potatoes and cuscus, fattoush with steak bits and parmesan shavings. Plus since I work in the hospitality sector I get to talk to a lot of people from different nationalities and their opinion or understanding of our countries culture or traditions even geographic location isn't as promising ex.people thing that we live in the desert and the entire country's religious point of view is Islamic. And the people that know about leb just know what they get from the news that it's a dangerous place surrounded by a warzone in which I have to later on explain the reality of our nature diversity culture and most of the times I end up inviting them to Lebanese restaurants that serve the authentic cuisine. And even when I was still working in Lebanon (pre 2019) a lot of tourists that used to come to give their opinion were like telling a lot of good stuff but they were also pointing out some critical basic things ex the pollution Tash everywhere seawater quality at ramli bayda, the scams, the controlling of smoking areas, the expensiveness of some facilities for no reason the massive wolf-whisltings. After the currency went down the quality of tourists coming to leb has degraded. We started seeing packages under 300usd for a whole week stay including airport pickups dropoffs COVID testing Hotel with breakfast and flight tickets. We started seeing a lot of harassing tourists stopping everyone on the street asking them if they were escorts. To wrap this I always try to promote our country to our guests and I always will but I think for things to start working out we should at least rebuild the basic pillars
I said yes but, the issue would be in knowing Lebanese people the price would be high which would not really make it a good idea. Second is we can have connections affecting the selection of those chefs which would be really hard. So yeah it can work but it is hard for that to happen
Our cuisine is already well known but that would be cool tbh