The crisis in incoming tourism to Israel deepened in February according to figures provided by the Israel Hotels Association. The number of hotel nights spent by tourists in February 2013 fell to 579,000, 18% down on February 2012. The slack was partly picked up by Israelis who spent 711,000 hotel nights in February, 9% more than in February 2012. In total there were 1.3 million hotel overnights in Israel in February 2013, down 5% from last year.
The sharp fall in incoming tourism was felt throughout the country. The biggest fall in tourist overnights was in Nazareth, which dropped 23% to 14,000 overnights. West Jerusalem and Herzliya each fell 20% to 164,000 and 7,000 overnights respectively, and Tel Aviv fell 19% to 123,000 overnights. Eilat, Tiberias, Netanya and the Galilee fell 21% to 60,000, 58,000, 18,000 and 6,000 overnights respectively, while tourist overnights in February at the Dead Sea fell by only 11% to 24,000. In Haifa the fall was only 5% to 16,000.
The figures also show that average hotel occupancy in Israel in February was 55%, a fall of 4% from February 2012. The highest occupancy rate was 73% at the Dead Sea.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 20, 2013
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