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Libya welcomes back tourists after years of war
Thanks to a year of relative calm following an October 2020 ceasefire and a United Nations-led peace process, the first group of tourists since 2012 were able to visit Libya.
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European tourists, escorted by security personnel, visit the old town of Ghadames, a desert oasis some 650 kilometres (400 miles) southwest of the Libyancapital Tripoli, on October 19, 2021, during an organised tour in the town. (AFP/Mahmud Turkia)
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ibya has hosted its first group of foreign tourists in a decade, with an excursion to an oasis town deep in the desert previously off-limits to visitors due to years of war.
French traveller Jean-Paul, who first visited Libya more than a decade ago, was among some 100 mostly European tourists on the trip.
He said he had long wanted to return to the "magnificent country, with extraordinary scenery and very welcoming people".
"Events meant for 10 years that wasn't possible -- then we were told we could finally come back on a supervised trip, with a security detail," the 57-year-old said.
"People here are very welcoming and you get the feeling that Libyans really want to see tourists again."
Police sirens echoed around the oasis of Ghadames, its old white buildings set amid a sea of palm trees, as the convoy of dozens of four-wheel-drives ferried the Italian, French, Icelandic and Swiss tourists through town.
Libya had been mostly off-limits to tourists throughout the four-decade rule of Moamer Kadhafi.
