Fear drains Israel of tourists
JERUSALEM — It was supposed to be a record-breaking year for tourist visits to Israel. But all that changed when the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas prompted jittery travelers to cancel trips en masse, leaving empty hotel rooms and barren tourist sites in their wake.
The summertime fighting delivered a serious hit to Israel’s tourism industry, causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and sparking concern that aftershocks will continue well after the war.
“Our challenge is how to prevent more cancellations. Despite a month having passed since the war, there is still an image among tourists that it is not safe to travel here,” said Oded Grofman of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association.
Israel’s war against Hamas came at the beginning of the peak tourist season, which runs through the Jewish High Holy Days and Christmas.
Israel launched the war on July 8 in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and to destroy a network of tunnels used to attack Israelis. More than 2,100 Palestinians and 72 people on the Israeli side were killed. Israel and Hamas signed a cease-fire on Aug. 26.
None of the casualties on the Israeli side occurred in the country’s tourist hubs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, which endured rocket attacks but were largely protected by the Iron Dome missile-defense system. One rocket that landed near Israel’s international airport spurred American and European airlines to suspend flights for 48 hours, sending a chill through the tourism industry.
After the second Palestinian uprising subsided nearly a decade ago, Israel has enjoyed a tourism boom, with as many as 3.6 million foreign visitors to the country last year. Tourism is now an estimated $5 billion industry and provides more than 110,000 jobs in Israel.
But the war caused a 31 percent drop in foreign visitors to Israel during that period compared with 2013, with the decline in August reaching 36 percent. Israel’s Tourism Ministry estimates the losses to be upward of $544 million. A postwar influx of visitors for the Jewish holidays is expected to bring some relief, but not enough to salvage a miserable season.
Merchants in Jerusalem’s Old City, a top tourist destination, say they are still feeling the sting. The area’s cobblestone streets are typically filled with tourists purchasing low-cost wares and cheeky T-shirts and visiting the holy sites. But they’ve been eerily empty over the summer.
The slump in tourism comes amid a wider economic slowdown in Israel, which emerged intact from the 2008 global financial crisis though is now suffering from timid growth. The Bank of Israel has taken measures to stimulate the economy, dropping interest rates to 0.25 percent — the lowest ever — but some economists fear the country is heading into a recession.
Mirit Craven Schneider was among the droves of tourists who canceled trips to Israel. She was set to spend two weeks touring the country with her husband and three young children in what would have been their first trip to Israel.
“Once everything started happening, it was very concerning,” said Craven Schneider, a first-grade teacher in Houston. “We didn’t want to be there with air-raid sirens going off and the kids having to spend time in bomb shelters.”
The industry is hoping to bounce back. Israel’s Tourism Ministry is set to launch new campaigns in markets in the U.S., Germany and Russia meant to target niche travelers, including Jews and Christians.