We’re not sure if you’re aware of just how popular Israel has become on the international cruise ship route, but this coming month some 37 passenger and cruise ships will be docking in Israel’s main ports, Haifa and Ashdod, bringing 50,000 visitors to the shores of the Holy Land.
There has been a big increase in the number of cruise ships docking at Israel’s ports over the last few years, a trend which is expected to keep on growing.
The cruises usually dock in Haifa, Ashdod, or Eilat, and typically spend 3 days in Israel. Figures show that each visitor spends an average of $150 per day (the tourism industry can expect a nice little earner of at least $7.5 million in June!).
In 2010, some 169,200 cruise visitors docked in the Holy Land, which was 2.5 times the numbers that docked in 2009. With some 68,000 cruise visitors in the period January – April 2011, which is 37% up on the same period last year, and the 50,000 expected this coming month, it shouldn’t take too much to imagine that very steep climbing graph…
The increase in cruise visitors has been largely put down to marketing, plus the improved border inspection crossings, which make it a lot easier and less stressful for tourists, whether they arrive by air, sea, or land.
However, the Israeli Tourism Ministry is trying hard to reduce the high docking fees that are currently being levied on docked ships. A recent increase of some hundreds of percent has exasperated many in the tourism industry, hence a new campaign to get these recent increases reverted.