In its sixth year running, Lebanon’s shopping festival enjoyed the support of The Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Ministry of Tourism and several cultural and trade organizations, promoting the country’s commercial and tourism sectors.

The ‘Live Lebanon’ festival saw the arrival of 42,000 tourists in January and 56,000 tourists in February. These numbers represent an increase of 14% and 40% respectively, over the same months last year.

Despite the significant increase in visitors, Lebanon’s commercial markets did not pick up considerably according to merchants. The following data, gathered through an opinion poll conducted by Information International, covers a sample of 350 shoppers and 70 merchants, distributed over 7 main streets. Shoppers were divided equally in gender and Lebanese comprised the highest number of those polled, as illustrated in Graph 1.
 

According to 62.2% of visitors interviewed, this trip to Lebanon was not the first, but on average, their fourth visit in the last five years. On this visit, 56% chose to stay in hotels, 15% stayed with friends, 12.1% with relatives, while 8.4% resided in furnished apartments.

Regarding the motives inducing shoppers to buy at this time, 22.9% replied that they required necessary items, 22% shopped because of the reduction in prices, 17.4% because the shopping festival coincided with the Eid Al Adha holiday, 12.8% required things for the Eid, 7% to fill their time and for entertainment, 6% because they found the goods were of good quality, and 11.9% reported other reasons.

In terms of consumer habits, the majority of those polled said they made purchases, whereas 2.6% said they did not buy as in Graph 2. The consumers also estimated the sum total of their purchases over the month as in Graph 3.

Out of the range of consumers who spent over $1000, the majority were visitors from the Gulf region, whereas most of those who spent between $201-$300 came from Africa, and the $50-$100 range was largely dominated by Syrian consumers.

In terms of product categories, fine clothing made up 88.9% of purchases, shoes were next at 65.1% of purchases, followed by beauty products (21.4%), jewellery (13.8%) and household and electrical items (7.3%).

Despite the improvement and development of the shopping festival year after year, 48% of shoppers found this year’s reductions equivalent to the year before, while 17.4% thought they were better, 21.7% were unable to compare and 12.9% believed reductions to be less than those of last year. In terms of price levels, 41.4% of consumers felt that prices were higher than the previous year (perhaps due to the introduction of the Value-Added Tax), while 46% said prices were unchanged. According to Graph 4, the introduction of the VAT was responsible for reduced sales.
When asked their opinions regarding the shopping festival, 54% replied that it is a good idea, 23.7% felt it is an excellent idea, while 15.1% find it ordinary and 7.2% believe it is a bad idea. The majority of those who found the initiative an excellent one were visitors from Gulf states, with 50.7%, followed by those visiting from African nations at 50%.

With reference to the government’s patronage of this event, 42.6% of shoppers replied that it was good, 26% said it was acceptable, 12.6% thought it was bad, 5.1% said excellent and 13.7% did not specify. When the question of government support was put to merchants, however, 70% replied that it did not contribute to the success of the shopping month, while 30% said they thought it provided the required support. Graph 5 illustrates merchants suggestions on government assistance.

Pertaining to sales transactions, 41.4% of merchants said the shopping festival was good, another 41.4% said it was normal, 10% noted it was excellent and 7.2% said sales were bad. It was noted that the average response per location ranged between ‘normal’ and ‘good’, whereas the Barbir and Mar Elias locations averaged answers of ‘excellent’.

Despite a 27% increase in visitors to Lebanon in the first two months of 2002 over the same time last year, the commercial markets did not pick up significantly, according to merchants. Graph 6 illustrates merchants as well as tourism and service organizations comparisons of sales between the two years.

The debate concerning the abolition of exclusivity rights was also addressed by merchants and tourism & service organizations, with the results in Graph 7. To ascertain demand for the festival, shoppers were asked about their interest in having more than one shopping festival per year, with 57% responding positively, compared to 30% who did not favor the idea and 12.9% who did not specify. A majority of shoppers were also interested in changing the timing of the shopping festival, with 67.4% favoring the idea and 32.6% opposed. Graph 8 pertains to the timing of the shopping festival and its convenience to consumers.