The Jerusalem Post

Tourism Ministry cancels local summer campaign

‘Prices have become too expensive already’

- • By ZEV STUB

Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid) does not want anyone to spend too much money on vacations this summer. In light of the high prices for vacations in Israel, he has canceled local advertisin­g campaigns calling for Israelis to vacation locally this summer.

Many Israelis are choosing not to vacation abroad this summer as coronaviru­s restrictio­ns threaten to make travel extremely inconvenie­nt. That means they will vacation locally, and many are complainin­g that hotel prices have become too expensive.

“The problem is that because demand for vacationin­g domestical­ly is much higher this year than usual, a lot of rooms are already pre-booked,” Dan Hotels CEO Ronen Nissenbaum told The Jerusalem Post last month. “That means the ones that are listed online are mainly the most expensive ones.”

Thus, for example, an informal search on Daka90, one of Israel’s largest travel sites, yielded just three results in Eilat for the first week of August, compared with approximat­ely 40 results during the off-season. Prices for two adults ranged from NIS 3,278 to NIS 11,965 for three nights.

Industry sources have advised the public to book their stays at hotels and vacation rentals early to avoid missing out. Most places have very generous refund policies in case of coronaviru­s-related cancellati­ons.

For this reason, Razvozov decided not to continue with the campaign.

“I see no point in continuing the campaign in a situation where the prices of vacations are so high,” he said. “It is a pity to waste public money for this. Vacation is not only for the rich. I intend to act urgently to regulate the issue.”

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