This article forms part of a series of publications under MEDUSA project’s “Mediterranean sub-grant Adventure Tourism Competition” which aims at catalyzing the creation of new innovative adventure tourism products and experiences and upgrading existing products in our partner territories Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Puglia (Italy) and Catalonia (Spain).

Enjoy reading and hope to welcome you soon at one of the wonderful places you will get to know here.

The René Moawad Foundation, MEDUSA project’s partner in Lebanon, awarded Horsh Ehden the MEDUSA Sub-Grant. Located in Ehden, North Lebanon, Horsh Ehden is known for its rich diversity of environments and seasons which gives room to unlimited adventure activities. In fact, it is full of cedar and pine trees and home to many birds, reptiles and mammals.

Horsh Ehden is an attractive place for hiking, best in spring and autumn, with several well signposted small trails. It offers several organized activity packages, such as hiking, climbing and biking.

With the MEDUSA Sub-Grant, Horsh Ehden aims to make that a reality, by enhancing its already existing Adventure Tourism activities and introducing new ones such as mountain biking and bouldering, but with a great focus on safety and security. Sandra Al Koussa Saba, General Manager of Horsh Ehden spoke in details about its plans for the future.

What are the challenges that made you apply for the MEDUSA Sub-Grants Competition?

For Horsh Ehden, just like many similar project, financial sustainability is always a challenge because we always seek the financial support of donors and grants. Such grants and financial support allow us first to enhance our existing activities, develop them and Horsh Ehden in addition to introducing new activities, because everything needs funds. Therefore, we saw MEDUSA sub-grants as an opportunity to make advancements.

How does MEDUSA and RMF contribute to the progress of Horsh Ehden?

Simply by winning the MEDUSA Sub-Grant, this will help us achieve our goals and work on what we lacked at Horsh Ehden in order to expand and develop adventure tourism, create new packages and activities in order to attract new clients. We didn’t only work on grants with the René Moawad Foundation which is implementing the MEDUSA project in Lebanon, but we collaborated in terms of the development of new packages and promotion. We were informed that MEDUSA will create a website for all the grants winners to market the products on it, and on social media. This promotion will help us reach a much bigger network of people!

How does the Horsh Ehden promote Adventure Tourism is Lebanon?

Horsh Ehden itself is a promotion of adventure tourism as well as tourism in Lebanon, because it attracts visitors from all over the country as well as from all over the world. Many of the visitors have been asking for more adventure tourism activities and we aim to fulfill this request. Also, it is worth noting that introducing new kinds of activities will help in targeting new clients, such as the more adventurous, and more athletics who might be interested in bouldering and mountain biking for example. Therefore, the number of visitors increases, and in turn, income increases and it becomes a cycle.

What are the objectives you set out in your application?

We aim first to enhance adventure tourism in Horsh Ehden and its surrounding area, by developing and enhancing the services we offer, introducing new products, such as bouldering and mountain biking. Additionally, we will compose a mountain rescue team to promote safety and security, by providing the emergency rescue team with equipment and the necessary training. Finally, we aim to increase the our income in order to create new job opportunities.

How do you predict the future of Adventure Tourism in Lebanon will be like?

Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism are now a trend. We have realized that after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the many lockdowns, people are more attracted to nature and all the activities in the nature as well as adventure activities. At Horsh Ehden, we have witnessed that many people who did not use to do such activities before the pandemic now are more excited to try them out. However, this trend did not start now, ecotourism and adventure tourism started booming worldwide long before the pandemic but were accentuated after it.