Beyond the Arab Spring: Evaluating Libya's long-term tourism prospects

• The paper evaluates Libya's long-term prospects for international tourism recovery.
• We examine quality of service in Libyan 4- and 5-star hotels.
• Sources include documentary analysis, a questionnaire survey and interviews.
• The paper explores and assesses strategies for improving quality of service.

Before the ‘Arab Spring’ that spread to Libya in early 2011, international tourism to the country had been increasing gradually for two decades. However, in the wake of the civil war, international tourism arrivals plummeted. Following the demise of the Gaddafi regime, the interim government reasserted Libya's commitment to international tourism growth and openness to the global economy, only to see the country once more descend into unrest and division. This paper assesses the long-term prospects for Libya's international tourism recovery, within a current context of increasing political instability and violence. The paper argues that a major factor inhibiting tourism growth has been the relatively poor quality of service in Libyan 4- and 5-star hotels. It goes on to explore possible strategies to improve the quality of service, concluding with an assessment of Libya's long-term potential to achieve ‘international’ standards of service quality and the wider implications that may be drawn from the paper's findings.