Investment in tourism is a welcome diversification from reliance on oil revenues which account for 60 percent of government revenues and both the government and the private sector are determined to put the country on the international tourist map... 
Libya can make an easy Weekend breaks for Europeans... Tripoli is not a desert mirage. With its souks, squares, Italianate streets and huge choice of cafes, shops and places of interest it is the perfect base for a short sojourn in Libya.  The magnificent Roman cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna are within easy reach and it is possible to take a trip into the Jebel Nafusa mountain range and visit the underground houses in the Berber heartland, a landscape of barren mountains and rocky escarpments... 

Tripoli, is the gateway to the magnificent Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and the Roman city of Sabratha, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Benghazi, close to the Greek ruins of Cyrene, is blessed with views of the Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountains.

The main problem facing the pledging tourist industry is not a lack of attractions but a lack of infrastructure. 

Libya's Tourism Minister Ammar Mabrouk Eltayef said  that his country had a "huge potential for tourism but lacks the infrastructure. ... It is not enough just to promote our ancient heritage, the sea, the Sahara, Libyan food, music and folk life; we have to build resorts and hotels," and more foreign investors". 

Libya is ultimately planning to welcome ten million visitors per year compared with the current total of 300,000.

The authorities embarked on an ambitious plan to fully exploit the country's Mediterranean tourism potentials by 2018. Italian property company Gruppo Norman reportedly signed a US$ 268 million deal with the government to construct a complete holiday resort on Farwa Island near the Tunisian border. The resort will be open to tourists in 2010. The signing of the Farwa Island Project, earlier this year, was presided over by Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem. 

In October 2004 a contract was signed with another Italian firm to establish several tourism resorts in the region of Al Khums, somewhat east of Tripoli.

In April this year, the biggest contract so far in Libya's non-oil sector, worth US$ 1.2 billion, was signed. The Dutch company Ladorado was ordered to construct 10 tourist complexes in the city of Tobruk near the Libyan-Egyptian border,! to be finalised by 2012. The project includes hotels, holiday apartments, shopping centres and restaurants. 

Tour companies which include Libya on their itineraries offer three main tours: cultural tours, desert treks and a journey to the east coast, which includes a drive through the Green Mountains to the Byzantine mosaics of Qasr Libya. Simoon Travel can also arrange specialist excursions. With a non arrogant pride Amelia Stewart talks about arranging a trip for a private client who wanted to locate her father's grave on the Tunisian-Libyan border. He was killed by a landmine in 1943 and, armed with a sketch map where the references were in yards, his daughter was able to come as close as possible to the site. 

Isolated lakes, ruined castles, the magnificence of the Sahara, nights under a canopy of stars, Berber and Tuareg culture, bread cooked under the warm sand, prehistoric rock art and Tripoli Museum with its impressive collection of artifacts from all pe! riods of Libya's rich history, are waiting to be discovered. 

The towering ubari sand dunes are one of Libya's most spectacular sites. At Umm Al Maa the Tuareg grind shrimps into a paste and bake them in small cakes which dry in the sun.

Leptis Magna is a magnificent Roman site which, in its heyday, benefited from the patronage of the founder of the African dynasty of Roman emperors Septimus Severus (b.146). It is still a place of immense splendor: the sands that swept over the site in early modern times prevented pillaging and preserved its glories. Today, its sites are being excavated by Italians, Frenchmen and some Poles. The British never really left, and even publish an archeological journal dedicated only to findings in Libya.

In 2000, by Dr Marliese Wendowski of the University of Hamburg, discovered one of the finest Roman mosaics at Leptis Magna: a 2,000-year-old depiction of an exhausted gladiator. The find was not widely publicised to ensure that! the excavation was not disturbed by looters. 

In ancient times Libya was a fascinating place. Its North African coast was first dotted by Phoenecian trading ports and a handful of Greek cities in the east. Then the Romans, bent on expansion and hungry for resources, overran the place. Not long after it was a full-fledged province with model towns, water projects, and the complicated military and government structures typical of the empire. Some historians believe Libya has never been so organized since.

The Romans trapped wild animals in Libya and sent them by the shipload to Rome to be killed in gladiatorial games. They grew olives and exported the oil; at its peak, Africa was producing more olive oil than Italy. They loaded grain by the ton into the holds of their wooden ships. The profits were plowed back into the immense port cities along the coast, with amphitheaters, arches, and lavishly appointed villas.

Apart from the Roman ruins other attractions! include incredible outdoor galleries of prehistoric rock art painted in hidden cracks and caves inhabited by the earliest Libyan tribes over 12,000 years ago. Depicting scenes of life prior to the desertification of the Sahara when the land was a well-watered savannah teeming with wildlife, these paintings and carvings are beautifully artistic. Although the Tuareg have know about this art for centuries the frescoes did not receive serious academic attention until the 1950s when the Italian explorer Professor Fabrizio Mori located upwards of 1300 sites in the Acacus alone.

The total solar eclipse of March 2006 will be a major boon for Libyan tourism .Wau-Au- Namus near Sebha in the heart of the desert, where the clear skies will provide one of the best views of the eclipse.The camp will be near an extinct volcano with unforgettable Turareg hospitality and wonderful cooking. The large crater has three lakes, each a different colour, blue, green and red, surrounded by bla! ck and white volcanic sands. 

Other specialist adventures are also possible: Ghadames and Ghat (November and December respectively) festivals and war memorials. Libya was the scene of some of the fiercest battles between the Allies and the Axis during the Second World War. There are cemeteries, among them the famous cemetery at Torburk, which are expected to attract foreign visitors.

In Ghadames the festival coincides with the date harvest and the ancient doors of the old town are thrown open in a celebration of traditional culture: music, dancing, singing and displays of horsemanship. The old town is deserted but it possible to wander through its labyrinthine alleyways and squares. In Ghat the festivities include camel racing, poetry recitals and music. Both festive and religious, these gathering attract tribes people from all over the country.

Libya is a fascinating, beautiful and still unspoiled country with unique deserts and welcoming people. American! tourists have described with amazement how Libyans on the street, "upon learning we were American, would break into smiles and shake our hands just for visiting. At a bakery in one small town, the owner handed us three perfect pieces of baklava and would not let us pay".

The legendary explorer Wilfred Thesiger said: "Here in the desert, I found all that I asked, I knew that I should never find it again". A trip to Libya could make his words a reality for thousands of tourists.

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