According to numbers released by the Israel Hotel Association this week, tourist numbers for the first four months of 2009 are down some 26% on last year. 2008’s record numbers were always going to be hard to beat amid the worldwide economic downturn, but it looks like the war in Gaza at the start of the year is also having an effect.
The only real bright spot in the statistics is the performance of Eilat in comparison with the rest of the country. The number of overnight stays year on year for Eilat was up 10% to 118,000 for April 2009 for example – compare that with somewhere like Tiberias, which saw a drop of some 46% in overnight stays, down to 46,000. Also seeing significant drops in tourist numbers were Jerusalem, down 35%, to 214,000; the Dead Sea, down 28%, to 49,000; and Tel Aviv, down 24%, to 141,000.
Overnight stays by foreign tourists were down 27% in April to 709,000, from 975,000 in 2008, while overall for the first four months foreign tourist numbers are down some 26% compared to 2008. The Ministry of Tourism is confident that the decline is in reverse, after a recent heavy advertising campaign in Europe, the US, Russia and Scandinavia. Pope Benedict’s recent visit is also expected to boost tourism to Israel throughout the rest of 2009.
Some 250,000 tourists visited Israel in April, the majority of them from the US (54,500). 30,000 French tourists made it over to the Holy Land in the same period, and some 19,500 from the UK, while German tourists seemed to fall in love with Israel during April, numbers were up some 20% on last year, to 14,000.
I have a feeling tourism to Israel is back on the up, and during the summer we’ll see a flood of tourists from all over the globe. Not sure if 2008’s numbers will be broken thanks to the poor start to the year, but you never know…and to all those tourists still not sure about booking those tickets for that visit to Israel, we say “Come on over, the water’s luverly!”.