Travel Hoping War-Weary Tourists Will Return to Israel SEPT. 16, 2014 By MATTHEW KALMAN On a recent afternoon in the Old City of Jerusalem, while fighting raged in Gaza, Bilal Abu Khalaf hosted a group of Israeli tourists at his textile store in the Christian Quarter — one of Jerusalem’s tourist gems. Dressed in a striped galabiyya and tasseled red tarbouche, Mr. Abu Khalaf showed his visitors exotic hand-loomed silks and golden-threaded garments from Syria, Morocco and Kashmir that adorn Israel’s most luxurious hotels and ambassadors’ homes. The Israelis were entranced, but they didn’t buy anything. “That’s the first group I’ve had here in more than a month,” Mr. Abu Khalaf said. “There have been whole weeks when no one has been inside the shop. I’ve sold almost nothing the entire summer. Business hasn’t been this bad since the first intifada in 1989, when the Palestinian groups ordered us to shutter our stores.” Nearby, the vast Church of the Holy Sepulcher marking the site where many Christians believe that Jesus was buried, usually packed with pilgrims, was echoing and empty. “It’s been catastrophic, horrific,” said Mark Feldman, chief executive of the Jerusalem-based Ziontours, who estimates he lost 20 percent of his annual business. “We lost 95 percent of our incoming tourism. Every single family-oriented group canceled. For the last month there have been no forward bookings and no inquiries for December or the Jewish festivals. Our hope is that the truce will hold and people will start considering coming to Israel in 2015. 2014 is gone.” By early September, a few tourists had returned to the empty alleyways. Josef Gurian, a physician from Washington, D.C., said he had decided to skip his sister’s wedding in Israel, then rebooked after a cease-fire on Aug. 26 ended 50 days of conflict. “If the cease-fire hadn’t been announced, I would not have come,” Dr. Gurian said. “I’m the breadwinner for a household of six, and I didn’t feel that any increase in my risk was worth the price.” His mother, Elaine, a museum consultant and former deputy director of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, arrived during the fighting. “I was coming anyway,” she said. “Two weeks ago I was in Ukraine for work. I was more worried there than here.” This year should have been a record year for Israeli tourism. In 2013, Israel attracted 3.6 million foreign visitors. Numbers from January to June showed a 15 percent increase. Then the war began in July, and the number of visitors slumped. In July and August, the number of tourists fell to 400,000, down from 578,000 in the same period last year, a 31 percent decline. Ninety percent of cruise ship visitors canceled. United States flights to Israel were banned for 24 hours after a rocket landed near Ben-Gurion airport. There was little damage and few casualties, but those who came found themselves running for shelter as air-raid sirens wailed in Tel Aviv. The Israel Hotels Association said that occupancy rates, usually 80 percent in July, fell below 40 percent. Top hotels offered deep discounts. The new Ritz-Carlton in Herzliya slashed its room rate to $400 from $575. In Jerusalem, Hilton’s new Waldorf-Astoria offered a 10 percent discount online and a 20 percent discount for inquiries by phone. Dan Hotels, which owns the King David in Jerusalem, warned shareholders in August that third-quarter revenue was liable to fall by 30 percent because of war-related cancellations. “We lost close to 50 percent of our business from July to the end of the year. All we are looking at is how to recover and how to promote 2015,” said Shmuel Maron, chairman of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association, which represents businesses handling groups from abroad. In East Jerusalem, many hotels were almost empty from mid-July to late August. The American Colony, a favored haunt of diplomats and foreign correspondents, found itself hosting a replacement roster of war-related guests. “The American Colony also suffered cancellations like other hotels but was fortunate that some of the lost reservations were replaced by an influx of foreign journalists,” said Jeremy Berkovits, a senior executive at the Colony. Tourism contributes 2 percent directly to Israel’s gross domestic product and a further 5 percent indirectly — a total of some $11.6 billion in 2013 — and is the country’s largest source of foreign currency. The Tourism Ministry estimates industry losses from the war at 2.1 billion shekels. (about $597 million.) The government has yet to approve a compensation fund to assist tourism businesses that lost revenue because of the war. Government ministers are more optimistic than industry executives. The minister of tourism, Uzi Landau, said that a government campaign to boost domestic tourism had compensated for foreign cancellations. “This last weekend, it was impossible to find a vacancy in the hotels around the country,” Mr. Landau said. “We are refocusing our efforts on major countries of origin so we can maintain those that already made reservations. We wish to boost up again and put the entire Israeli tourism industry back on track in a few months.” Israel’s minister of finance, Yair Lapid, said that he would make a final assessment of the economic damage caused by the war in October, after the Jewish High Holy Days. “You have to remember that in Israel the high tourism season is October and May, not July-August, so we still have hopes about a quick rebound in tourism,” Mr. Lapid said. “But we’re not going to sit around and wait for this. We’re going to be proactive in helping Israeli tourism. We need a few weeks ... and then we’ll be able to understand more the impact and the swiftness of the rebound.” Other sectors also suffered. International soccer and tennis matches were called off. The music industry was battered after concerts were canceled by Neil Young, America, CeeLo Green, Lana Del Rey, Megadeth and the Backstreet Boys. “I had a lot of cancellations, which wreaked havoc in the entire business,” said Hillel Wachs, a concert promoter at 2b Vibes Music. “Everybody decided it was not safe to play in Israel. Everybody’s licking their wounds right now and hoping for better times, which will happen.” Thousands of wedding and bar mitzvah guests pulled out, including close relatives of brides and grooms. “The last eight weeks we’ve probably lost about 30 percent of our work, about 100 percent of the guests that were coming from abroad,” said Paul Assenheim, a top Israeli caterer. “Eight of the 30 events we had for July and August were canceled. I’m now looking at events in October, and people are saying they’re not quite sure if they’re going to come.” Karen Tsafrir, whose company, Live Production, plans celebrations and company parties, said next year’s business is already suffering. “The first to cancel were a couple whose son’s bar mitzvah is in August 2015. They said they couldn’t bear the thought of a year filled with worrying about what would happen if things are like this,” she said. “They have friends and family who were supposed to come this summer who canceled their holidays and lost money on flights and hotels. They couldn’t bear to put their family through that.” A version of this article appears in print on September 21, 2014, on page TR2 of the New York edition with the headline: Officials Hope War-Weary Tourists Will Return. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 06:12:18 +0000
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