With Rosh Hashanah coming up, the Israeli Tourism Ministry has published an overview of the state of the country’s tourism industry after a year of war, and its efforts to handle Israel’s tens of thousands of internal evacuees, many of whom have been placed in hotels.
Israel suffered a loss of about 18.7 billion shekels ($5 billion) from incoming tourism and 756 million shekels ($203 million) from domestic tourism, according to the ministry.
Since the outbreak of war, around 853,000 tourist entries have been registered, mainly from (in descending order): the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the Philippines.
The Swords of Iron War disrupted the tourism industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Based on the pace of tourist arrivals until the war, a new incoming tourism record appeared in the offing, surpassing 2019’s 4.5 million entries.
But in 2023, only 3 million tourist entries were recorded. And in 2024 only 1 million arrivals are expected.
Most of the visitors to Israel over the past year have been Jewish (62%) with 29% being Christian (Catholic and evangelical).
About 44% came to visit friends and family, 28% gave classic tourism as the reason for their visit and 13% came for business. Seventy-three percent of tourists had previously visited Israel.
Of the evacuees, 68,712 have not yet returned home, most of them from northern communities. Of those, 53,113 are staying within the community, while 15,599 are being hosted in hotels.
Shortly after the war’s start, Tourism Minister Chaim Katz requested and received authority to manage the evacuation of residents living along the conflict line.
The ministry’s involvement in managing the evacuation has saved the state about 5.2 billion shekels ($1.4 billion) by eliminating agent commissions for hotel placements and due to the difference between hotel rates and grants for evacuees choosing other accommodation options.
“Our individualized and sensitive treatment of evacuees helped strengthen the home front’s resilience during Israel’s prolonged campaign,” said Katz.
To date, the evacuation has cost 8.6 billion shekels ($2.3 billion), including 5.5 billion shekels ($1.5 billion) paid to hotels. The ministry booked approximately four million rooms and 13.5 million overnight stays. An additional 3.2 billion shekels (860 million) was paid in accommodation grants.
“We worked to preserve the infrastructure needed for the tourism industry for the day after and we continue our efforts to encourage tourism even during these challenging times,” said Katz.
Despite the tourism crisis, the ministry continues to receive many grant requests for hotel construction and expansion. In 2023, grants were approved for the construction of 2,122 hotel rooms.
Since the start of the war, seven hotels have opened with the assistance of the ministry, adding 765 rooms.
(JNS)