Tourist overnights up 62% in May

Half of May tourist overnights were in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Tourist overnights were up 62%, and Israeli overnights down 4% in May 2005, compared with May 2004, according to figures from the Israel Hotel Association.

Israeli overnights amounted to 917,000, 60% of the total, and tourist overnights 600,000, 45% less than in the peak year of 2000.

Total overnights amounted to 1.5 million in May, 15% more than in the corresponding month last year. The nationwide room occupancy rate was 54%, 17% higher than in May 2004.

Hotel Association chairman Avi Rosenthal said that the upward trend in overnights was continuing, and was greater than the increase in incoming tourism in May, signaling a change in the composition of tourism. The number of tourists using various tourism services, such as restaurants, taxis, and souvenirs, is rising.

Half of May tourist overnights were in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Hotel overnights rose everywhere in Israel. The steepest increase was in Tiberias, where overnights were up 175% to 28,000.

50% of Israeli overnights were in Eilat, 2% more than in May 2004. Israeli overnights increased 14% in Jerusalem, but fell in Tiberias, the Dead Sea, Haifa, kibbutzim (collective settlements), Tel Aviv, Netanya, and Herzliya.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on June 27, 2005

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