Tourists shun Israel


July 12, 2015
Sarah Benton

Tourists have stopped coming to Israel’ from Ynet follows the first article.

A crowd of visitors in Israel – but these are Christians visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem at Christmas where they spend all six nights of their week’s visit. Photo by EPA

Israel’s Tourism Industry Still Hurting from Last Summer’s Conflict

By Talia J. Medina, The Media Line
July 07, 2015

July and August should be peak season for tourism in Israel. From hiking and snorkelling to exploring ancient ruins or camel riding in the desert, Israel has it all. With schools out for summer in the US many families choose to take advantage of Israel’s diverse tourism opportunities and historical offerings including more museums per capita than any other country in the world.

Tourism is one of Israel’s biggest revenue generators bringing in an estimated $11.5 billion in 2013 alone. But since the outbreak of violence between Gaza and Israel last summer tourism has suffered – and local businesses are feeling it.

Located in the centre of Jerusalem, along Jaffa Road, the city’s main thoroughfare, is the Holy Bagel. The cafe is no more than a 10 minute walk in either direction from the Old City or the Mahane Yehuda Market – strategically located for tourists and local customers.

“Before the conflict, before the war and everything, we wouldn’t have 5 seconds to stop, or even to go to the bathroom,” Esther Chikly, Holy Bagel’s owner, told The Media Line.

If you walked into the Holy Bagel now though, you’d notice a different scene. At 12:30 p.m. on one of the busiest days of the week, the shop is nearly empty. Two patrons sit at different tables inside as they quietly enjoy their meals in solitude. Two employees serve a customer as Chikly washes dishes in the back.

“In the summer we usually would have four or five people on a shift,” she reminisced. “Dishes would be piled up. We would be prepping boxes and boxes of vegetables and we’d constantly refill them. That’s how busy the store used to be.”


The Holy Bagel cafe in Jerusalem stands empty. Photo taken July 2015 by Talia J. Medina

Chikly’s business isn’t the only one suffering. Just two doors down on what used to be a hectic corner is the Coffee Bean.

Two years ago, before the conflict arose, the coffee shop was making $25,000 more than it is now, according to the owner, Ronen Targeman.

“Last July and August business really went down,” Targeman told The Media Line, while sitting at one of the many vacant tables in his store. “I don’t know if it will be good or not this July and August but now in June, it’s not the best.”

Tourists are the Coffee Bean’s main clientele because they recognize the international name, Targeman said. The franchise has more than 1,000 locations around the world so people from all over come in for a little taste of home, but now it’s not the same.

“People are not coming,” Targeman continued. “It’s a big problem. Before at 12:30 all the tables inside would be full and more than half outside too, but here you see the place. And our prices haven’t gone up. Other people have raised their prices but I’ve stayed at the same price.”

Maintaining the price has been a challenge for his business because, like the Holy Bagel, Targeman can’t staff as many employees. He schedules far fewer workers per day which has allowed him to avoid firing anyone so far.

2014 had looked like it was going to be one of the best in the country’s history for the tourism industry, Yaron Burgin, manager and part founder of Abraham Hostel, told The Media Line. But following the conflict the second half of the year was one of the worst for visitor numbers.


A graph showing how tourist numbers (in yellow) declined following the outbreak of conflict in July 2014 and how numbers compared to previous years (Graphic: Israeli Ministry of Tourism)

“Last summer’s war had a massive impact on tourism in Israel (and) the effect was almost immediate,” Burgin said, noting that although no tourists fled home from the popular backpackers’ hostel, many who had been planning to come cancelled their bookings. The timing of the conflict, during the peak summer months, and the number of weeks it dragged on for hurt tourism worse than previous conflicts, Burgin said.

In particular the closure of Ben Gurion airport for 24 hours – due to the threat from Hamas rockets – was very damaging because it stuck in tourists’ minds months after the summer and made Israel seem more dangerous than it actually is, he explained.

Although a resumption of violence at this time appears unlikely, Burgin suggested that current political pressures are hampering the tourism industry’s recovery. “We are a crazy country and we know it – Israel is always being mentioned in the news and not in a good way. It’s not like it was just last year.” The rise of BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement), terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and negative headlines regarding Israel’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge have not helped, the backpacker turned manager added.

The damage from the conflict on the numbers of visitors to Israel was confirmed by Pini Shani, the director of the Overseas Department at the Israeli Tourism Ministry. Tourism in 2013 did very well despite the year coming only a short time after the outbreak of Operation Cast Lead, a previous round of fighting between Hamas and Israel. This year on the other hand, following last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, has not been so sanguine, Shani told The Media Line.

Partly this was due to the length of the fighting during the most recent confrontation with Hamas, Shani said, but also it was because of outside factors. The recession in Russia, a key tourist country, reduced visitor numbers. As has the current instability in the region and the infamy of the Islamic State. Some people are thinking “this is not a good time to visit the Middle East,” Shani concluded.

But this did not leave him pessimistic: “We believe 2016 will be a good year,” he said. Although budget restraints have held the Ministry of Tourism back a number of advertising campaigns and initiatives have been launched to try to encourage visitors to return to Israel. Chief among them is the scheduling of Ryanair flights directly from three cities in eastern Europe to Eilat, scheduled to start in the next few months.

The possibility of flights directly to the beach resort town from as little as $35 will bring tourist numbers back up – or at least that is the hope of Shani and his colleagues.

Robert Swift contributed to this article.


Tourists have stopped coming to Israel’

Despite hopes for a recovery in incoming tourism after Gaza war, the crisis is only getting worse with a 28% drop in tourists’ hotel stays in the first quarter of 2015. According to estimates, the industry has already lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

By Danny Sadeh, Ynet news
May 13, 2015

Anyone walking around Tel Aviv’s beaches*, especially on weekends, will find it difficult to understand what tourism crisis everyone in Israel is talking about. The beaches are packed with tourists from Germany, Holland, England, the Czech Republic and Hungary, mostly young people enjoying a relaxed vacation in the city.

But as soon as one goes out of Tel Aviv, the depth of the crisis is revealed. Despite the hopes for a recovery two or three months after last summer’s operation in Gaza, it seems the crisis is only getting worse, the number of tourists is dropping, the number of hotel stays is declining and the number of organized tours has been significantly cut.

The initial figures of 2014 signalled a promising start: The first half of the year recorded a 16% rise in tourist stays, and industry officials were certain that it would be a record year in incoming tourism, both in terms of tourist entries and hotel stays.

But Operation Protective Edge disrupted the plans and had an immediate effect on incoming tourism – starting with a complete halt in new booking to the cancellation of all vacation packages which could have been cancelled without paying the full cancellation fee.

The figures for the second half of the year pointed to a 26% drop in tourist stays. An annual summary presented a 6% drop in tourist stays and a 4% drop in proceeds from incoming tourists.

Now, in 2015, the situation is only getting worse, reflecting the ongoing effect of the cancellations and halted bookings from abroad, as well as the depth of the economic crisis in Russia.

Figures compiled by the Israel Hotel Association for the first quarter of the year point to a 28% drop in tourist stays in Israel. The southern city of Eilat, Israel’s tourist resort, recorded a 51% decline in tourist stays, the Dead Sea recorded a 44% drop, Nazareth – 32%, and Tiberias – 31%. The situation isn’t much better in Jerusalem and Netanya.

‘The pilgrims and Jews are the only ones left’

Ari Keren, 62, the general manager of the Eden Hotel in Tiberias, has been working there since completing his military service. He used to work as a reception clerk and waiter, and is now forced to work in reception and marketing again in order to save on costs.

“There is a huge drop in incoming tourism and a drop in room prices for groups,” he says. “We sell a half-board stay for groups of pilgrims for about $40 a night. We had groups from Poland, Russia and Romania, and they stopped coming. The pilgrims arrive in Israel for a week, but spend six nights in Bethlehem.”

Keren recently made the hotel glatt kosher and began working with the ultra-Orthodox population in order to compensate for the losses from incoming tourism.

Oni Amiel, the manager of Amiel Tours, has been working in Israel’s incoming tourism industry for decades. According to his estimate, the industry has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the current crisis.

“The Protective Edge effect basically began in the first quarter of 2015,” he says. “Tourists still came here immediately after the war, with booking they couldn’t cancel. Now there is a drop in the entire incoming tourism – individuals, groups, events and conferences. Every recovery from such a crisis is slow and exhausting, and the way things look today, it will continue in 2016.

“It’s not just Protective Edge. The entire Middle East appears to be on fire. Maps of the region seen abroad present Israel as a small island surrounded by Lebanon and what is happening with Syria, Hamas, Yemen, the Islamic state. It’s not easy.”

According to Amiel, “Tourism to Israel is based on pilgrims or Jewish tourists. The past few years, which were relatively calm, saw an increase in the general tourism as well, but now that it has dropped we are only left with the pilgrims and Jewish tourists.

“We are operating under difficult conditions. In tourism you need professionals, people who can speak to a priest who organizes a group, a choir or band manager, and understand these audiences’ special needs. So we are making every effort to preserve the employees, and we hope things will get better.”

 

* see also Partying as if there’s no tomorrow

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