EuroMed J. Management, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2018 315 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Lebanon and tourism: coastal encroachment: case of Byblos beaches Ribal Rizk* and Raffi Der Vartanian Al Kafaat University, Ain Saadeh, Beirut, Lebanon Email: rizkribal@hotmail.com Email: raffidervartanian@gmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract: Lebanon is well known for its coastal tourism. Having coasts over 220 m all along the Mediterranean Sea made the country an attractive destination for tourists from all around the world. However, several factors had affected the Lebanese coastal tourism. This article is targeted towards the Lebanese Government and its attitude. In addition, it aims to shed light on encroachments carried out by some touristic property ‘owners’ on the Lebanese coast. Furthermore; this article will study the link between these encroachments and the Lebanese Government’s centralised structure, lack of tourism planning or ‘Boosterism’ and corruption. Particularly Byblos city was selected for fieldwork. After data collection and analysis, a conclusion was drawn regarding these encroachments. New ideas were raised, such as coastal tourism management, empowerment of municipalities and governance principals as a way out. Keywords: coastal tourism; encroachments; centralisation; corruption; boosterism; Byblos, Lebanon; public and private sectors; tourism planning; government. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Rizk, R. and Der Vartanian, R. (2018) ‘Lebanon and tourism: coastal encroachment: case of Byblos beaches’, EuroMed J. Management, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.315–328. Biographical notes: Ribal Rizk holds a PhD in Economics from the Doctoral School of Law, Political, Administrative and Economic Sciences of the Lebanese University. She obtained her Master’s degree in Finance from Saint Joseph University Faculty of Economics. She is currently the Head of the Finance Department at Ghassan Barraj Business School in Al Kafaat University and has been teaching several courses in economics and finance at Al Kafaat University since 2012. Raffi Der Vartanian is a PhD student at the Lebanese University, Doctoral School of Law, Political, Administrative and Economic Sciences. He was MRes graduate student from Lebanese University Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management. In addition, he is an Instructor at Al Kafaat University, teaching several courses related to hospitality, tourism, and economics.