The latest Israel Hotel Association forecast paints a bleak picture for tourism in the country in 2015, as the trade group urged the government to set up a stand-alone national tourism marketing agency.
It says Operation Protective Edge in Gaza is still impacting the industry and will have an ongoing impact on the coming year’s hotel occupancy rates.
The number of tourist overnight stays is expected to fall to about 8.4 million in 2015, compared to 9.1 million this year although the IHA expects a slight upturn in domestic tourism.
Occupancy rates will plunge by 10% to just 51.9% in 2015, partly due to a number of new hotels opening in early 2015, according to IHA projections.
IHA President Eli Gonen called for an independent national tourism marketing agency to take over the role of the Tourism Ministry’s marketing efforts.
"In the past 20 years, we have barely had a single tourism minister who served an entire term. Every change of minister leads to a change of director-general," Gonen said.
"There is no continuity in the ministry’s activity. The Tourism Ministry keeps setting targets without consulting the heads of the tourism industry and tasking the private sector with missions which the industry cannot always accomplish."
"We need a national tourism marketing authority which will bring together all the involved parties and cater to the needs of this industry and the challenges it is facing," he added.
