Tourism Is Hit Hard in Israel by Gulf Crisis

Tourism in Israel, which had been making a comeback, has been dealt a severe blow by the Persian Gulf crisis.

Government officials and hotel owners say fear of war in the Middle East has brought a sharp decline in the number of foreign visitors this month.

The officials had high hopes for September, which is normally a good month for tourists because of the Jewish High Holy Days. Hotel managers had projected an increase of 12% to 14% over last September.

But many bookings have been canceled, and hotels in the resort areas along the Mediterranean coast, on the Sea of Galilee and at Eilat on the Red Sea have been seriously affected.

Tourism Minister Gideon Patt said recently that “Jews are not supporting Israel with their feet,” referring to cancellations by foreign Jews who had been expected for the Jewish holidays.

Patt noted pointedly that there had been no cancellations for last week’s Christian Pentecostal Conference in Jerusalem.

He said he had temporarily suspended advertising abroad because of the current lack of interest.

Patt and others had been optimistic after two years of disappointing bookings brought on in part by the Palestinian uprising. For the first eight months of the year, tourism was up 9% over last year’s level.

But in the Galilee resort city of Tiberias, hotel keepers now report vacancy rates of 25% to 90%. One hotel manager, Avraham Kugel, said, “European travel agents told me that fears of the intifada (the uprising) are negligible compared to the uncertainty caused by events in the gulf.”

Another, Oree Ben-Har, said he has had more than 1,000 cancellations.

“The situation is even worse in view of the fact that we still don’t have any reservations for the winter months,” he said.

At Netanya, a Mediterranean resort, Raphy Hanich, chairman of the local hotel association, said that during the High Holy Days only 15% of the guests will be from abroad, compared to the usual 80%.

At Caesarea, also on the Mediterranean, golf club manager Alon Ben-David reported many cancellations by golfers who had been scheduled to play in tournaments, including 100 Dutch and 100 British players due to arrive next month. Smaller groups from France and the Netherlands have also decided not to come, he said.

The Red Sea resort of Eilat, where the clientele normally changes in the autumn from Israelis to northern Europeans, also reported many cancellations.

In Jerusalem, Irit Gazit, sales manager at the new Laromme Hotel, said that until recently the hotel had been fully booked through October.

“Now,” she said, “the cancellations are piling up. Next week, we still have 200 bookings out of 220 rooms. But after that it’s going to nose-dive--only 50% to 60% occupancy. Our bookings problem won’t be solved until they solve the gulf crisis. So we have to wait patiently and keep our fingers crossed.”