French Jews make August a record season for tourism

August 2004 will go down as the best month in a decade for Greater Tel Aviv hotels. For the past three weeks, there hasn't been room at any inn on Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Herzliya and Netanya's beaches.

The hotels there, and in Eilat, were filled with some 40,000 French Jewish holidaymakers. Yesterday, they started packing their bags and heading home for the resumption of school and work.

Nonetheless, we haven't seen the last of the French, who have three more vacations. October's holidays will bring couples who prefer to avoid the loud family vacation atmosphere of August.

Optimistic estimates of the end of the crisis in the tourism industry can be heard from every area of the sector. October is projected to end with 1.4-1.5 million tourists, compared to last year's 1.06 million; good news for hoteliers and for the Tourism Ministry, not to mention incoming tourism organizers.

But this is still the joy of the poor. The last time Israel had 1.4 million tourists was in 1985. Then there were 30,000 hotel rooms, while today there are 46,000, a 53 percent increase, meaning the same number of tourists is spread out over far more hotels, and profits are spread thinly as well.

The increase in tourists must be viewed through the prism of a hotel sector with capacity for 4.5-5 million travelers.

Nonetheless, the hoteliers and travel agents are pleased; the worst seems to be behind them. During the hard times there was widespread streamlining, trimming of senior positions and adoption of the understanding that if income doesn't grow, outlay must shrink.

Shmuel Merom, chair of the Incoming Tourism Organizers Association, says the upturn in tourism has been evident since the beginning of the year, with strong first and second quarters. "We are in the midst of an excellent third quarter as far as incoming tourism goes, and travel agents have reservations that reflect strong showings in Jewish, ethnic and pilgrim tourism."

Merom believes that during the years of the Palestinian uprising, there were 8-10 million Christians and other tourists who postponed trips to Israel, creating "a pressure cooker of tourism about to explode".

According to him, despite a warning from the U.S. State Department not to travel here, government officials, Jews and Christians are visiting and churches are organizing community pilgrimages.

"Clearly the autumn months will be weaker," Dan hotels VP of marketing Rafi Beeri admits. "A large portion of the tourists returns home for work and school. However, in mid-September business travel picks up again after the summer break and it is followed shortly by the Jewish holidays. New Year is not a strong holiday for incoming tourism, but Sukkot will have good fill rates for hotels."

Each of the past several years has carried the threat of layoffs as the hotel industry shed temporary workers hired for the summer. Beeri does not expect mass pink slips, although workers will stop getting overtime hours.

Tourism Ministry figures indicate 674,000 tourists arrived in Israel in the first six months of the year, up substantially over last year's 405,000. French tourists represented 100,000 of these, compared to 56,000 in the first half of 2003.

Tourism Ministry senior deputy director general Rafi Ben Hur confirms that the rise has been among those populations that express solidarity with Israel. "The ministry is pleased with the development, but vacationers are not back in a big way," he said. "Some 70 percent of the Christian groups visiting Israel are Evangelist Christians visiting for the first time. This proves our message is reaching new populations."

Ben Hur also noted that Jewish tourists, in particular French Jews, arrived in bigger numbers than in 2000. He also noted the return of the tradition of foreign Jews holding bar and bat mitzvahs in Israel.

One group that has returned after a long break is choirs. On August 25, 150 American singers will perform gospel music from Jerusalem's Tower of David for a nationwide U.S. broadcast. The last time the group visited Israel was in 1985.

	A group of French Jews cooling down in the pool at a Tel Aviv hotel yesterday.
	Photo by: Alon Ron