Israel’s tourism prospects, which had been booming for the first half of the year, were dealt a severe blow last week as escalating fighting with Hamas resulted in the U.S. State Department issuing a new travel warning and the FAA ordering a rare temporary suspension of all U.S. flights to Tel Aviv.
The events sent several cruise lines in search of alternatives to upcoming port calls and prompted tour operator Globus to cancel all of its Israel departures through August and Trafalgar to cancel departures through mid-September.
“We felt that with the travel warning and the flight situation, those are tangible restrictions,” said Steve Born, Globus’ senior vice president of marketing. “It’s not emotional. We’ll look at it in due time [to decide] what we’ll do with the September departures. We can’t predict peace in the Middle East. We feel we have to take it in steps.”
On July 22, the FAA informed U.S. air carriers that they were prohibited from flying to or from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in response to a rocket strike that landed near the airport earlier that morning. The 24-hour ban was renewed for another 24-hour period but was lifted after 36 hours amid strong protests from Israel, which said cutting off air service was like handing a victory to Hamas.
During the shutdown, Delta, United and U.S. Airways all suspended service to Tel Aviv, and several European carriers voluntarily followed suit.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of State issued a new travel warning for Israel last week, advising U.S. travelers to defer nonessential travel to Israel and the West Bank.
“U.S. citizens need to be aware of the risks of travel to these areas because of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel,” the warning stated.
The State Department noted that since July 8, long-range rockets have been launched from Gaza and have reached locations in Israel that include Tel Aviv. Additionally, some rockets have reached Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, including Bethlehem and Hebron.
“In light of the ongoing rocket attacks, U.S. citizen visitors to and U.S. citizen residents of Israel and the West Bank should familiarize themselves with the location of the nearest bomb shelter or other hardened site, if available,” the advisory said.
But for those who sell Israel as a destination, the travel warning and the flight ban were unwarranted.
“I think that it was used to put political pressure on Israel to agree [to] an immediate ceasefire,” Ronen Paldi, president of Israel specialist operator Y’alla Tours, wrote in an email.
Y’alla has begun to get some cancellations for July due to the conflict.
The escalated fighting in the Gaza Strip last week led Regent Seven Seas Cruises to skip a call into Haifa on its July 19 sailing on the Seven Seas Mariner, and Oceania Cruises to cancel two upcoming port calls in Israel aboard the Riviera. Instead the ships are calling on alternate ports such as Mykonos in Greece or Antalya and Alanya, Turkey.
The lines said they will continue to monitor the situation in Israel and will adjust future itineraries should the situation warrant.
Sergey Solovyov, CEO of Eden Group Israel, says guests at his company’s 12-room Eden Boutique hotel in Tel Aviv are safe and that he hasn’t had problems staffing or getting supplies to the property, adding that there are two bomb shelters near the hotel and that life in the city was “relatively normal” as of late last week.
“All of our guests are taken care of, sirens or not,” he said.
Still, he allowed that the length of the conflict and the amount of rocket fire from Gaza is obviously affecting business, especially during the flight ban.
“The past conflicts have lasted a shorter time,” Solovyov said. “We’ve experienced greater difficulty securing reservations during what is normally the high season for tourists.”
Hilton Worldwide, which operates three hotels in Israel, also said in a statement that its properties in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat were operating “as normal” late last week and that its safety procedures are “in line with applicable safety and security regulations” but declined to be more specific about how operations were being affected.
“We are extremely concerned for the safety of all Israeli and Palestinian civilians directly affected by the current situation, and we hope that it will come to a quick end,” said Elisa Moed, co-founder of Breaking Bread Journeys, a tour operation the Israeli created in conjunction with her Palestinian business partner, Christina Samara.
“Of course we are also very concerned about the impact that this particular conflict will have on our tourism sector, which is currently experiencing a significant decline as a result of tour cancellations,” added Moed. “We are concerned that tourists, in the short and medium term, may opt for other travel destinations, despite the fact that most Holy Land sites and attractions are open and accessible for tourists.”
In a call to action last week, Israel Tourism Commissioner Haim Gutin issued a statement to U.S. travelers reminding them that the country is open for business despite the State Department warning.
“Please know that tourism is continuing, and hotels, restaurants, tourist sites and holy places are open as usual,” stated Gutin.
He noted that 75,000 tourists were in Israel as of last week and that their travel arrangements were “proceeding as planned.”
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg flew El Al Israel Airlines to Israel during the U.S. flight ban, in what he said was a show of solidarity with the Israeli people.
“Ben Gurion is the best-protected airport in the world, and El Al flights have been regularly flying in and out of it safely,” Bloomberg stated. “The flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately.”
Despite the devastation, deaths and the setbacks to the region’s security and stability that the current conflict presents, Israel and the Holy Land have traditionally been resilient destinations that often bounce back quickly with determined travelers often persevering with their plans, according to operators in the region.
Travelers to Israel “tend to be very hearty and committed,” said Globus’ Born. “Before we took the step to cancel our August departures, 90% [of our passengers], despite what they were seeing in the news, were committed to their original departure date.”
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Danny King and Tom Stieghorst contributed to this report.