Dia Zbeidi from Lod and Taoufik Mohammed Al-Krinawi from the Bedouin town Rahat studied medicine in the city of Iași. Two more were wounded.
Two Israeli students were killed in a traffic accident in Romania on Saturday morning.
The fatalities were identified as Dia Zbeidi from Lod and Taoufik Mohammed Al-Krinawi from the Bedouin town Rahat. Both studied medicine in the city of Iași. Their families have been notified.
Two others, also from Rahat, were wounded in the crash in in the city of Piatra Neamț in north-east Romania. One is in critical condition and the other sustained serious wounds. He is currently in stable condition after undergoing surgery.
Al-Krinawi, in his 20s, was in his third year of medical school in Romania. Sufyan Al-Krinaw, a relative of Mohammed, told Haaretz that some 18 months ago Mohammed's brother drowned in a swimming pool in Eilat.
Mohammed was also the uncle of three children who were killed in a fire three months ago in their Rahat home.
Mohammed Zbeidi, Dia's uncle, said that he was in his fifth year of medical school. "This is a very big tragedy that fell on us," he said.
"Everyone here is a wreck, especially the parents… In Arabic, the name 'Dia' means light, and Dia was the light of the family."
Representatives of their families were on their way to Romania.
Tourism, Travel, Hospitality, Conservation: News,Stories And Experiences From Allover The World
Showing posts with label Eilat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eilat. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 May 2016
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
ISRAEL; Israel Promotes Tourism
Israeli tourism, down in recent months, is expecting a boost from an unlikely source: a growing number of Chinese and Indian visitors. Tourism Ministry Director-General Amir Halevi told Reuters news agency that both sectors have shown growth at a time when tourism in general has declined, and both are being targeted by the ministry for promotion.
Following Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, during which Israel responded to repeated rocket fire from Gaza with airstrikes which killed over 2,100 Palestinians, tourism rates fell 3 percent to 3.1 million visitors in 2015. The barrage of rockets during the six-week operation frightened some foreigners, prompting them to cancel planned trips, and forced the temporary closure of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, interrupting flights. A weak Russian economy also contributed to the declining numbers.
Visits from China and India in that time, however, appear to have been on the rise. Fifty thousand Chinese tourists arrived in Israel in 2015, up 43 percent, and the ministry predicts that number will double by 2018. Non-stop flights from Beijing to Tel Aviv starting next month, provided by Hainan Airlines, will help by adding 35,000 seats per year along the route already flown by Israel’s national carrier, El Al.
“This will change the game,” Halevi told Reuters. “The price of tickets will go down 50 percent.”
In addition, Israel and China agreed last week to a ten-year multiple visa deal, similar to the ones China has reached with the United States and Canada. This would allow visitors between the two countries to enter repeatedly on the same visa.
Chinese interest in Israel is growing, Halevi noted, with 170 people from China participating in last month’s Jerusalem Marathon, up from six the year before.
Until recently, Haaretz noted last year, Chinese tourism to Israel was severely restricted. Only official delegations were permitted to visit. That changed a few years ago when the Chinese government recognized Israel as an official destination, allowing organized tour groups to travel to the Jewish State.
Although many Chinese tourists are drawn by a fascination with the Start-Up Nation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Israel’s unique natural phenomena, there are also a significant number of Christian pilgrims intent on seeing the Holy Land with their own eyes. Official figures place the Chinese Christian community at 26 million strong, while scholarly estimates place the number closer to 100 million.
To accommodate Chinese tourists, the ministry has opened a course in Chinese for certified tour guides. By the end of 2016, Israel is expected to have 70 such certified Chinese-speaking tour guides. It has also invested significant sums in promoting Israel to Chinese travelers, including maintaining a Chinese-language page on its website.
Meanwhile, Indian tourism to Israel is also on the rise. Last year, nearly 40,000 visitors arrived in Israel from India, representing a 13 percent increase. The ministry target for 2018 is 80,000 to 100,000 Indian tourists.
Like Hainan Airlines, Indian air carriers have expressed interest in adding flights to Tel Aviv. According to Halevi, if the numbers keep rising, it is likely at least one will join El Al in providing that service.
Some Indian visitors come to Israel to vacation, while others come on religious pilgrimages. India is home to nearly 30 million Christians, the third-largest religious population in the country. In 2013, the Israeli Tourism Ministry opened an office in Mumbai, working to promote Israel as a viable tourist destination for Indian tourists.
Among the factors which discourage tourists, Halevi said, are the high costs of flights and hotels. The ministry, however, is seeking international hotel chains to build low-cost facilities.
Halevi added that he believes a convention center and casino in the tourist city of Eilat in Israel’s south would bring in more tourists, though the casino plan was met with political resistance.
Tourism plays a significant part in Israel’s economy, supplying 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. It contributes over 40 billion shekels ($11 billion) to the Israeli economy annually, and employs 200,000 people, or three percent of Israel’s workforce.
Following Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, during which Israel responded to repeated rocket fire from Gaza with airstrikes which killed over 2,100 Palestinians, tourism rates fell 3 percent to 3.1 million visitors in 2015. The barrage of rockets during the six-week operation frightened some foreigners, prompting them to cancel planned trips, and forced the temporary closure of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, interrupting flights. A weak Russian economy also contributed to the declining numbers.
Visits from China and India in that time, however, appear to have been on the rise. Fifty thousand Chinese tourists arrived in Israel in 2015, up 43 percent, and the ministry predicts that number will double by 2018. Non-stop flights from Beijing to Tel Aviv starting next month, provided by Hainan Airlines, will help by adding 35,000 seats per year along the route already flown by Israel’s national carrier, El Al.
“This will change the game,” Halevi told Reuters. “The price of tickets will go down 50 percent.”
In addition, Israel and China agreed last week to a ten-year multiple visa deal, similar to the ones China has reached with the United States and Canada. This would allow visitors between the two countries to enter repeatedly on the same visa.
Chinese interest in Israel is growing, Halevi noted, with 170 people from China participating in last month’s Jerusalem Marathon, up from six the year before.
Until recently, Haaretz noted last year, Chinese tourism to Israel was severely restricted. Only official delegations were permitted to visit. That changed a few years ago when the Chinese government recognized Israel as an official destination, allowing organized tour groups to travel to the Jewish State.
Although many Chinese tourists are drawn by a fascination with the Start-Up Nation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Israel’s unique natural phenomena, there are also a significant number of Christian pilgrims intent on seeing the Holy Land with their own eyes. Official figures place the Chinese Christian community at 26 million strong, while scholarly estimates place the number closer to 100 million.
To accommodate Chinese tourists, the ministry has opened a course in Chinese for certified tour guides. By the end of 2016, Israel is expected to have 70 such certified Chinese-speaking tour guides. It has also invested significant sums in promoting Israel to Chinese travelers, including maintaining a Chinese-language page on its website.
Meanwhile, Indian tourism to Israel is also on the rise. Last year, nearly 40,000 visitors arrived in Israel from India, representing a 13 percent increase. The ministry target for 2018 is 80,000 to 100,000 Indian tourists.
Like Hainan Airlines, Indian air carriers have expressed interest in adding flights to Tel Aviv. According to Halevi, if the numbers keep rising, it is likely at least one will join El Al in providing that service.
Some Indian visitors come to Israel to vacation, while others come on religious pilgrimages. India is home to nearly 30 million Christians, the third-largest religious population in the country. In 2013, the Israeli Tourism Ministry opened an office in Mumbai, working to promote Israel as a viable tourist destination for Indian tourists.
Among the factors which discourage tourists, Halevi said, are the high costs of flights and hotels. The ministry, however, is seeking international hotel chains to build low-cost facilities.
Halevi added that he believes a convention center and casino in the tourist city of Eilat in Israel’s south would bring in more tourists, though the casino plan was met with political resistance.
Tourism plays a significant part in Israel’s economy, supplying 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. It contributes over 40 billion shekels ($11 billion) to the Israeli economy annually, and employs 200,000 people, or three percent of Israel’s workforce.
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Technology Is Revolutionizing The Hotel Industry
Travel agents beware. Technology is revolutionizing the tourism industry in general and the hotel industry in particular.
A further takeover by technology will make tourist agents obsolete.
Although not stated specifically by speakers at the annual meeting of the Israel Hotel Association at the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria on Tuesday, it was very clear from their “world in your pocket” remarks that anyone with a smart phone and the savvy with which to make use of online data bases has no need to consult a travel agent. Anyone can plan a customized business trip or buy a vacation package by surfing the net, reading guest comments and deciding for themselves what is good value for money and where they will have the best experience.
Technology is so advanced that hotel guests with an iPhone can use it to open the door of their room, check out menus, get directions within the hotel and even check in and out without going to the reception desk.
But just as technology can be one’s best friend, it can also be one’s worst enemy.
The cyber threat hovers everywhere, and last year, according to Assaf Aviv, Senior Cyber Security Consultant at Deloitte Israel, security was breached in 250 hotels in fifty countries.
There are five kinds of cyber threats, he explained. Hackers are making a statement. Corporate companies are gaining a competitive advantage. Government driven operators are into espionage.
Terrorists are creating disruption and criminals are breaching data control systems for financial gain.
For years people were told that technology would make their lives easier, but Roy Weiner, the global President of Sales for Howazit, demonstrated that if hoteliers want to protect their online reputations and avert negative publicity, they have to be available 24/7, and must be alert and aware of what goes on in every department of the hotel.
“Be pro-active. Be available and be informative,” Weiner said, emphasizing that hoteliers must establish contact with the guest before arrival, show the guest an on-screen view of everything the hotel has to offer, greet the guest at check-in, during the stay and after the stay to foster guest loyalty and to get them to return. All these factors combined, he said, reduce negative user reviews by 73 percent.
“You have to automatically handle customer responses. You have to have your finger on the pulse of everything that happens in the hotel. You have to be Big Brother,” he said.
While technology and its impact on the industry was the main subject of the day, it was not the only subject. Noaz Bar- Nir, a former director-general of the Ministry of Tourism and the current director-general of the Israel Hotel Association, said that Israel had gone through a difficult year in terms of incoming tourism and that there was a drastic need to be more competitive.
But the government is not doing enough to make competition feasible, he said. “It’s sending us to compete against our neighbors and Western Europe as if we were dragging an iron ball and chain.”
Although Germany is one of the most expensive tourist destinations in Europe, Bar-Nir said, for an Israeli hotel to earn what a German hotel earns by charging 100 euro a night, the Israeli hotel would have to charge 160 euro.
Moreover, in Germany, he continued, people who come to work in hotels have been fully trained.
In Israel they are trained on the job.
The rate of unemployment in Israel notwithstanding, the hotel industry finds it difficult to recruit local staff. As a result, there are 2,500 Jordanians working in Eilat and in the Dead Sea region.
A further takeover by technology will make tourist agents obsolete.
Although not stated specifically by speakers at the annual meeting of the Israel Hotel Association at the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria on Tuesday, it was very clear from their “world in your pocket” remarks that anyone with a smart phone and the savvy with which to make use of online data bases has no need to consult a travel agent. Anyone can plan a customized business trip or buy a vacation package by surfing the net, reading guest comments and deciding for themselves what is good value for money and where they will have the best experience.
Technology is so advanced that hotel guests with an iPhone can use it to open the door of their room, check out menus, get directions within the hotel and even check in and out without going to the reception desk.
But just as technology can be one’s best friend, it can also be one’s worst enemy.
The cyber threat hovers everywhere, and last year, according to Assaf Aviv, Senior Cyber Security Consultant at Deloitte Israel, security was breached in 250 hotels in fifty countries.
There are five kinds of cyber threats, he explained. Hackers are making a statement. Corporate companies are gaining a competitive advantage. Government driven operators are into espionage.
Terrorists are creating disruption and criminals are breaching data control systems for financial gain.
For years people were told that technology would make their lives easier, but Roy Weiner, the global President of Sales for Howazit, demonstrated that if hoteliers want to protect their online reputations and avert negative publicity, they have to be available 24/7, and must be alert and aware of what goes on in every department of the hotel.
“Be pro-active. Be available and be informative,” Weiner said, emphasizing that hoteliers must establish contact with the guest before arrival, show the guest an on-screen view of everything the hotel has to offer, greet the guest at check-in, during the stay and after the stay to foster guest loyalty and to get them to return. All these factors combined, he said, reduce negative user reviews by 73 percent.
“You have to automatically handle customer responses. You have to have your finger on the pulse of everything that happens in the hotel. You have to be Big Brother,” he said.
While technology and its impact on the industry was the main subject of the day, it was not the only subject. Noaz Bar- Nir, a former director-general of the Ministry of Tourism and the current director-general of the Israel Hotel Association, said that Israel had gone through a difficult year in terms of incoming tourism and that there was a drastic need to be more competitive.
But the government is not doing enough to make competition feasible, he said. “It’s sending us to compete against our neighbors and Western Europe as if we were dragging an iron ball and chain.”
Although Germany is one of the most expensive tourist destinations in Europe, Bar-Nir said, for an Israeli hotel to earn what a German hotel earns by charging 100 euro a night, the Israeli hotel would have to charge 160 euro.
Moreover, in Germany, he continued, people who come to work in hotels have been fully trained.
In Israel they are trained on the job.
The rate of unemployment in Israel notwithstanding, the hotel industry finds it difficult to recruit local staff. As a result, there are 2,500 Jordanians working in Eilat and in the Dead Sea region.
Monday, 18 January 2016
TURKEY: After Armed Attacks,Tourists Egypt And Turkey
Tourists shun resorts from Egypt to Turkey in wake of Isis attacks .
Off the windswept headland where the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez, a dozen divers trail bubbles during their descent towards the famous Shark Reef, one of the world’s most popular diving sites.
A year ago Ras Mohammed national park would have been crowded with boats above and hundreds of divers below the water, but today’s visitors have the blue depths almost to themselves. After the bombing of a Russian tourist jet shortly after takeoff from nearby Sharm el-Sheikh last year, most flights to the area were cancelled and tourists have mostly stayed away.
Thousands of miles away along the Mediterranean coast, Tunisian security guard Karim Sahloul surveys another idyllic beach at the resort of Sousse, which was emptied by a terrorist attack. After a lone gunman opened fire at a hotel, killing 38 mostly British holidaymakers, few have dared to come back.
“Sousse is not like before; now it is very quiet, very dark,” says Sahloul, who was hailed as a beach-front hero last summer after risking bullets to administer life-saving first aid to Briton Allison Heathcote. “A lot of people are now without work, restaurants and shopping centres are closed, everyone is feeling it.”
His bravery, and that of other tourism workers who raced to protect visitors, earned plaudits, but it was not enough to restore the confidence of visitors or their governments, which have slapped travel warnings on countries across the Middle East and north Africa.
A string of high-profile attacks, fears of more violence and official travel advisories have led to a catastrophic collapse in visitor numbers in a swath of countries across the Middle East and north Africa which had turned sun-and-sand holidays into a critical pillar of their economies.
Mile after mile of empty hotels along the Sousse beachfront bear mute testimony to the shattering impact of the June attack and a March assault on tourists in the Bardo museum in Tunis, in which 21 were killed. Sahloul counts himself lucky to still have a job: “The whole city depends on the tourists. Really life is hard; there are lots of people without work.”
Advertisement
Tunisia’s tourism minister, Salma Lummi, warned that the sector, which employs an estimated 400,000 people, had reached a “crisis point” and that its collapse risked fuelling a vicious circle of extremism. “Hotels have to close and this is an important industry. One of the sources of terrorism is lack of hope. It is not the only motor of it, but it is one of the very important origins,” she said.
In Egypt, the decline in tourism has been slower but just as devastating. Annual visitor numbers peaked at 14 million in 2010, but then the country’s revolution began in January 2011, sparking political instability that ate into tourist confidence. The numbers have never topped 10 million since and are expected to fall slightly to around nine million for the 2015 fiscal year, with the plane bombing and attacks on tourists adding to concerns about general violence.
Beaches and diving sites from Dahab to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada are empty or sparsely visited. The beach hotels that are still open have shut down restaurants and wings and cut back on activities and, though they are a long way from the northern Sinai base of the Isis affiliate which claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Russian plane, Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan and Luxor have also been hit hard.
“Now we have no leisure tourism at all, it’s all conferences and business. We’re suffering a lot, as we have no groups,” said Ahmad Samir, assistant sales groups manager of the Marriott hotel chain in Cairo’s upscale Zamalek neighbourhood.
At the popular monastery of St Catherine’s, beneath Mount Sinai, the Bedouin guides sit disconsolate and barely employed. Some nationalities, Americans among them, require a police escort to visit. Along the coast even the rough-and-ready beach camp huts are empty, with even Egyptians only visiting in the smallest of numbers. “I had my own four-wheel drive to take tourists on excursions,” says one driver now driving for another firm. “I had to sell it to make ends meet.”
Advertisement
Efforts by Egypt’s ministry of tourism to boost arrivals with campaigns on social media have also fallen flat, with the recent #ThisisEgypt campaign hijacked by Twitter users who lampooned the campaign by using the hashtag alongside examples of Egypt’s poor human rights record.
Turkey’s tourism sector is bracing for a similar shock after an Isis-orchestrated suicide attack killed 10 people in the heart of Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, outside the Blue Mosque, this month. Most of the dead came from Germany, the country which sends the most visitors to Turkey – 5.2 million last year – and cancellations are expected, worsening an already bleak year.
Up to 4.5 million Russians were already expected to change holiday plans after the Turkish military shot down a Russian jet that strayed into Turkish airspace on a bombing mission over Syria, and military operations against Kurdish insurgents in the south-east have added to a sense of crisis.
“Things are getting worse for Turkey’s tourism sector, with crisis after crisis erupting before the last one is resolved,” “The situation is so bad that we should simply accept this year as a ‘lost year’ for tourism.”
In Israel, and in the occupied West Bank too, where numbers were only just beginning to recover from the impact of the 2014 Gaza war, tourism is again in reverse following more than three months of almost daily violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Despite hopes by Israel to market its own Red Sea coastal resort, Eilat, to Russian tourists avoiding Egypt and Turkey, there is little evidence yet of that succeeding. “What we see is not connected to [the 2014 Gaza war] but rather an extended, low-intensity conflict without an end,” Eran Ketter, a lecturer on tourism planning, management and marketing, recently told the Israeli daily Haaretz. “It wears down the tourists and Israel’s ability to launch campaigns, because it is impossible to promise that it will be over soon.”
When suicide bombers killed 60 people in three hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, tourism for the first six months of last year declined by $1.5bn (£1bn) in a country where tourism makes up 15% of the economy.
Even those countries least affected by the regional turmoil have not been spared. Morocco has had no major terrorist attack since 2011, but also remains under a shadow. The UK Foreign Office does not advise against travelling to the country, but has warned the 500,000 Britons expected to visit this year that there is “a high threat from terrorism”.
Necessity, however, is the mother of invention. While the usual tourists stay away, some countries are attempting to look to different places to fill the gap left by absent Europeans and Americans. In Egypt the government announced this month that it would grant Chinese tourist groups visas on arrival as a way to boost visitors. For its part, Tunisia is trying to attract new tourists from Algeria to stay afloat.
“Visa-free arrival from China could have a positive effect,” said economics analyst Angus Blair, head of the Signet Institute. “There won’t be the same numbers as from Russia, but it could make up for some of the fall.”
Off the windswept headland where the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez, a dozen divers trail bubbles during their descent towards the famous Shark Reef, one of the world’s most popular diving sites.
A year ago Ras Mohammed national park would have been crowded with boats above and hundreds of divers below the water, but today’s visitors have the blue depths almost to themselves. After the bombing of a Russian tourist jet shortly after takeoff from nearby Sharm el-Sheikh last year, most flights to the area were cancelled and tourists have mostly stayed away.
Thousands of miles away along the Mediterranean coast, Tunisian security guard Karim Sahloul surveys another idyllic beach at the resort of Sousse, which was emptied by a terrorist attack. After a lone gunman opened fire at a hotel, killing 38 mostly British holidaymakers, few have dared to come back.
“Sousse is not like before; now it is very quiet, very dark,” says Sahloul, who was hailed as a beach-front hero last summer after risking bullets to administer life-saving first aid to Briton Allison Heathcote. “A lot of people are now without work, restaurants and shopping centres are closed, everyone is feeling it.”
His bravery, and that of other tourism workers who raced to protect visitors, earned plaudits, but it was not enough to restore the confidence of visitors or their governments, which have slapped travel warnings on countries across the Middle East and north Africa.
A string of high-profile attacks, fears of more violence and official travel advisories have led to a catastrophic collapse in visitor numbers in a swath of countries across the Middle East and north Africa which had turned sun-and-sand holidays into a critical pillar of their economies.
Mile after mile of empty hotels along the Sousse beachfront bear mute testimony to the shattering impact of the June attack and a March assault on tourists in the Bardo museum in Tunis, in which 21 were killed. Sahloul counts himself lucky to still have a job: “The whole city depends on the tourists. Really life is hard; there are lots of people without work.”
Advertisement
Tunisia’s tourism minister, Salma Lummi, warned that the sector, which employs an estimated 400,000 people, had reached a “crisis point” and that its collapse risked fuelling a vicious circle of extremism. “Hotels have to close and this is an important industry. One of the sources of terrorism is lack of hope. It is not the only motor of it, but it is one of the very important origins,” she said.
In Egypt, the decline in tourism has been slower but just as devastating. Annual visitor numbers peaked at 14 million in 2010, but then the country’s revolution began in January 2011, sparking political instability that ate into tourist confidence. The numbers have never topped 10 million since and are expected to fall slightly to around nine million for the 2015 fiscal year, with the plane bombing and attacks on tourists adding to concerns about general violence.
Beaches and diving sites from Dahab to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada are empty or sparsely visited. The beach hotels that are still open have shut down restaurants and wings and cut back on activities and, though they are a long way from the northern Sinai base of the Isis affiliate which claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Russian plane, Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan and Luxor have also been hit hard.
“Now we have no leisure tourism at all, it’s all conferences and business. We’re suffering a lot, as we have no groups,” said Ahmad Samir, assistant sales groups manager of the Marriott hotel chain in Cairo’s upscale Zamalek neighbourhood.
At the popular monastery of St Catherine’s, beneath Mount Sinai, the Bedouin guides sit disconsolate and barely employed. Some nationalities, Americans among them, require a police escort to visit. Along the coast even the rough-and-ready beach camp huts are empty, with even Egyptians only visiting in the smallest of numbers. “I had my own four-wheel drive to take tourists on excursions,” says one driver now driving for another firm. “I had to sell it to make ends meet.”
Advertisement
Efforts by Egypt’s ministry of tourism to boost arrivals with campaigns on social media have also fallen flat, with the recent #ThisisEgypt campaign hijacked by Twitter users who lampooned the campaign by using the hashtag alongside examples of Egypt’s poor human rights record.
Turkey’s tourism sector is bracing for a similar shock after an Isis-orchestrated suicide attack killed 10 people in the heart of Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, outside the Blue Mosque, this month. Most of the dead came from Germany, the country which sends the most visitors to Turkey – 5.2 million last year – and cancellations are expected, worsening an already bleak year.
Up to 4.5 million Russians were already expected to change holiday plans after the Turkish military shot down a Russian jet that strayed into Turkish airspace on a bombing mission over Syria, and military operations against Kurdish insurgents in the south-east have added to a sense of crisis.
“Things are getting worse for Turkey’s tourism sector, with crisis after crisis erupting before the last one is resolved,” “The situation is so bad that we should simply accept this year as a ‘lost year’ for tourism.”
In Israel, and in the occupied West Bank too, where numbers were only just beginning to recover from the impact of the 2014 Gaza war, tourism is again in reverse following more than three months of almost daily violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Despite hopes by Israel to market its own Red Sea coastal resort, Eilat, to Russian tourists avoiding Egypt and Turkey, there is little evidence yet of that succeeding. “What we see is not connected to [the 2014 Gaza war] but rather an extended, low-intensity conflict without an end,” Eran Ketter, a lecturer on tourism planning, management and marketing, recently told the Israeli daily Haaretz. “It wears down the tourists and Israel’s ability to launch campaigns, because it is impossible to promise that it will be over soon.”
When suicide bombers killed 60 people in three hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, tourism for the first six months of last year declined by $1.5bn (£1bn) in a country where tourism makes up 15% of the economy.
Even those countries least affected by the regional turmoil have not been spared. Morocco has had no major terrorist attack since 2011, but also remains under a shadow. The UK Foreign Office does not advise against travelling to the country, but has warned the 500,000 Britons expected to visit this year that there is “a high threat from terrorism”.
Necessity, however, is the mother of invention. While the usual tourists stay away, some countries are attempting to look to different places to fill the gap left by absent Europeans and Americans. In Egypt the government announced this month that it would grant Chinese tourist groups visas on arrival as a way to boost visitors. For its part, Tunisia is trying to attract new tourists from Algeria to stay afloat.
“Visa-free arrival from China could have a positive effect,” said economics analyst Angus Blair, head of the Signet Institute. “There won’t be the same numbers as from Russia, but it could make up for some of the fall.”
Saturday, 12 December 2015
TURKEY: Pegasus Airlines of Turkey Turns Ten
Pegasus currently flies to over 100 destinations in 40 countries including six times a week between London Gatwick and Istanbul, which started earlier this year, twice daily between London Stansted and Istanbul and three times a week to Izmir.
Pegasus have also recently added international flights to Baghdad, Erbil, Kutaisi, Nice, Oslo, Eilat (Ovda Airport) and domestic flights to Kars, Kastamonu and Ordu.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)