As a sovereign state in Asia boarded by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, this country is officially known as the Lebanese Republic and has access to the Mediterranean Sea. Considered a developing and service oriented economy, with major industrial sectors including metal products, banking, and agriculture and transport equipment. It ranks 80^th in the world by nominal GDP and has a population of almost 6 million. Tourism has been historically important to the economy and remains a major source of revenue, even though the Syrian war has affected the industry.

Lebanon has a dual healthcare system formed from a private and a public sector, with the government body known as The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health as the official regulator. This public entity was established with the mission of improving the health status of the population, and providing equitable accessibility to high quality services through fairly financed universal coverage. In reality, more than 40% of healthcare is paid for out-of-pocket, which gives the private sector an opportunity to co-exist in the country.

Lebanon ranked second to last in the Medical Tourism Index, and just above Iran. Considering there are only 13 countries in the Arabic region, that doesn’t help the idea of better competing against other nations, as all dimensions need to be enhanced in order to improve its overall position. When it comes to looking for ways to increase its medical tourism revenues, much is needed in order to turn around its healthcare industry and be able to attract international patients to its healthcare facilities. But working on the country’s image and economic stability has to be the way to start, because incoming visitors will consider a cost advantage only if they feel the destination is safe and attractive, which are sub-dimensions where Lebanon still ranks second to last too.