Hoteliers claim Gaza war cost tourism 1 NIS billion
Israel Hotel Association says drop in bookings by tourists from abroad took heavy toll on industry
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip cost the tourism industry some NIS 1 billion ($260 m) in lost bookings, Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
Figures released by the Israel Hotel Association showed that after the 50-day conflict in July-August 2014 — dubbed by the Israel Defense Forces as Operation Protective Edge — hoteliers missed out on some 2.2 million bookings from tourists.
Israel Hotel Association Director-General Noaz Bar Nir called on Tourism Minister Yariv Levin to rescue the tourism industry and increase the budget for marketing Israel as a travel destination to holidaymakers from abroad.
In January 2015, the Tourism Ministry released its own figures, which showed the conflict in Gaza caused a mere 7% drop in tourism overall during 2014, a year that had gotten off to an encouraging start.
The year began with healthy increases over the previous year, with January-June seeing an 8% rise in visitors and an 18% rise in tourists spending more than one night in the country.
The trend, however, was broken during Operation Protective Edge, as the IDF battled against Hamas in Gaza, with tourism falling approximately 30% in July and tapering off at a 20% decrease for the rest of the year.
During the conflict, planes from international destinations temporarily stopped flying into Israel after a rocket struck near Ben-Gurion Airport, adding to tourism woes.
At the time, tourism minister Uzi Landau said in a communique that, despite the fall in international tourism, the industry was largely saved by a campaign to help stimulate domestic tourism — an effort that was credited for helping to keep hotels filled throughout the country.
During the conflict, Palestinians in Gaza fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli towns and cities, some of which reached as far north as Haifa’s suburbs.
Some 2,100 Palestinians were killed and tens of thousands more left homeless, according to Palestinian and UN tallies. Israel, which lost 66 soldiers and six civilians in the conflict, said the high civilian toll in Gaza was due to fighters there embedding their military infrastructure in residential areas.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
