Last update - 00:00 24/09/2006
Northerners welcome vacationers, but say there are still not enough
By Eli Askenazi and Irit Rosenblum, Haaretz Correspondents
Northerners welcomed an influx of vacationers over the Rosh Hashanah holiday but said the numbers were still less than they had hoped, just six weeks after fighting ceased with Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon.
Some northern business owners said they were still relatively disappointed at the amount of vacationers, particularly with the amount of people staying at hotels and bed-and-breakfasts.
In addition, it seems the amount of vacationers checking in dwindles near the border with Lebanon.
An official at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority's tourism and marketing department said the absence of tourists from overseas was sorely felt. "Though a few hundred tourists wandered around in the country, the numbers were infinitesimal compared to last year," he said.
In Metula, a town on the border with Lebanon, around 100 rooms at hotels were left vacant, of the 400 available.
Lior Baz, the chairman of a tourism fund in the town said "we expected many more vacationers, this is highly disappointing, usually at Rosh Hashanah, everything is filled in advance. "
"It is hard for us to explain why more people haven't arrived. Apparently, there are some who are still afraid, one article featuring a demonstration of Hezbollah supporters on the other side of the fence is enough to make folks in the center of the country nervous. But in reality, everything here is quiet, it is all behind us now, we are just waiting for the people to come," Baz said.
Meir Levy, who heads a forum of tourism industry heads in the Upper Galilee, says he thinks people are still afraid of vacationing close to the border. He says that accommodations close to the border were only 50-70 percent booked, while further south, near the Hula valley, hotels were doing much better. At his kibbutz, Gonnen, for example, all 78 rooms and lodges were full.
Levy said that this year there was no "telephone hysteria" ? the usual influx of callers wishing to make last-moment arrangements for the holidays. Levy said in previous years the last room would have been booked a week before the holiday. This process usually took around two months, but this year, hotels only began making bookings after the war was over. "I believe Israelis will continue to take vacations, but apparently this time more people went to other places, in the south or overseas," Levy said.
Hotel owners in the Western Galilee also reported around 20 percent vacancy rates. They too cited the vacationers fears of staying near the border with Lebanon.
Thousands of people spent the Rosh Hashanah holiday in nature reserves, Jewish National Fund parks and tourist attractions, over half of the vacationers choosing to celebrate in the north.
Around 200,000 vacationers visited JNF sites throughout the country, and around 70,000 others visited parks run by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The JNF's forests and camping sites were filled with Israelis on holiday.
Mount Meiron and the River Jordan were among the most popular sites over the holiday, with many vacationers camping on the banks of the river.
Almost 6,000 vacationers went kayaking at Kfar Blum and Beit Hilel. People also flocked to the Hula valley to see the first cranes flying in for the season. Other hotspots included parks featuring streams and creeks, as well as wooded areas such as the Carmel forest.
Sites in the hills surrounding Jerusalem were also popular, and forests in the Ben Shemen area were completely full. Around 3,000 attended a kite-flying event hosted by the nature and parks authority at the Apolonia beach near Herzliya.
Nature and parks authority officials said the number of vacationers was similar to that recorded last year at Rosh Hashanah. On Saturday, around 30,000 people visited the authority's parks and on Sunday, the second day of the holiday, 40,000 more came.