The Israel Hotel Association has reported that occupancy in June 2022 recovered to levels approaching those of 2019. However, an analysis of overnight stays last month shows that while domestic tourism is flourishing, overseas tourism still has a long way to go to reach 2019 levels, after foreign tourists were barred from entering the country for nearly two years during the Covid pandemic. June 2022 was 68%
In total there were 2.1 million hotel overnights in June 2022, down 5% from June 2019. Israelis were responsible for 1.5 million overnights last month, down 8% from June 2021 but up 18% from June 2019. Foreign tourists spent 643,000 overnights in June 2022, down 36% from June 2019. The national hotel occupancy rate in June 2022 was 68%, compared with 52% in June 2021 and 73% in June 2019. The number of hotel rooms in Israel is 57,000, up 3% from 2021.
Eilat's hotels led the way in June 2022, with an occupancy rate of 81%, up 5% from June 2019. Eilat has 11,000 hotel rooms - no change since 2019.
Tel Aviv has 9,800 hotel rooms, up 13% from last year, and had an occupancy rate of 72% last month, down from 88% in June 2019.
Jerusalem has 11,000 hotel rooms, unchanged from June 2019 and an occupancy rate of 59% last month.
Herzliya's hotels had an occupancy rate of 78%, down 2% from June 2019. Netanya had an occupancy rate of 69% last month, up 6% from June 2019. The Dead Sea had an occupancy rate of 68% in June 2022, unchanged from June 2019, and Haifa had an occupancy rate of 66% last month, down 6% from June 2019. Tiberias recorded an occupancy rate of 61%, down 10% from June 2019 and Nazareth recorded an occupancy rate of 47%, down 35% from June 2019.
The Israel Hotel association said, "Israelis continue to express confidence in the local hotel industry and thanks to this there is a continuing upward trend in hotel overnights. At the same time the recovery of incoming tourism is still slow relative to 2019 and we expect the flow of foreign tourists to strengthen significantly by the end of the year. We believe that investment in a marketing campaign around the world focusing on Israel will bring tourists back here in the numbers that we saw in 2019 by 2023."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 26 2022.
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