JERUSALEM: ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN TRADE EFFECTED AFTER EIGHT MONTHS OF UNREST AS TOURISTS AVOID JERUSALEM

Record ID: 836402

  • Title: JERUSALEM: ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN TRADE EFFECTED AFTER EIGHT MONTHS OF UNREST AS TOURISTS AVOID JERUSALEM
  • Date: 5th June 2001
  • Summary: (L!1) JERUSALEM (JUNE 5, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) ( ** GOOD SCENES **) WIDE OF EMPTY STREET IN THE MARKET IN JERUSALEM'S OLD CITY SCU CLOTHES HANGING IN MARKET SCU NATIVITY SCENES AND WOOD CARVINGS FOR SALE ON MARKET STALL PAN OF SOUVENIR SHOP WITH STALL OWNER PLAYING A VIDEO GAME WHILST WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS SCU DETAIL OF MAN PLAYING VIDEO GAME (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF SHOP OWNERS SEATED AROUND TABLE PLAYING CARDS SCU CARDS ON TABLE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ZIAD HASHIMA, SHOP OWNER, SPEAKING IN FRONT OF HIS SHOP, SAYING: "Our business since the Intifada is down by ninety-five percent. Even before business was not that good, but its going (down) ninety five percent. But we still surviving . We Survive until a solution comes." GV EXTERIOR OF HYATT HOTEL VARIOUS EMPTY LOBBY OF HOTEL (3 SHOTS) SMV, RONI TIMSIT, GENERAL MANGER OF HYATT HOTEL IN JERUSALEM, LOOKING AT VIEW OF THE CITY (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF JERUSALEM SKLYINE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) RONI TIMSIT, GENERAL MANGER OF HYATT HOTEL IN JERUSALEM STANDING ON BALCONY, SAYING: "The hotels in the east of the city, most of them are closed. But the rest of the country -- Jerusalem is more affected and Tiberias -- but Tel Aviv, Eilat and the Dead Sea are little affected. I don't know with (the) new situation, the bombing from Friday night, I don't know what will happen. For the time being who is most effected is Jerusalem and Tiberias" VARIOUS, OF VIEW OF JERUSALEM WITH ISRAELI FLAG IN THE FOREGROUND SMV ISRAELI SOLDIER LOOKING AT DOME OF THE ROCK WIDE OF AL AQSA MOSQUE SLV ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND ARMY JEEP PATROLLING TOURIST SITE VARIOUS, SOLDIERS AHD TOURISTS LOOKING AT VIEWPOINT OVER THE CITY (2 SHOTS) SMV, EHUD OLMERT, MAYOR OF JERUSALEM, LOOKING AT VIEW OF OLD CITY WIDE OF TOURISTS, MEDIA AND MAYOR LOOKING AT VIEW OVER JERUSALEM SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAYOR OF JERUSALEM, EHUD OLMERT, SAYING: "The truth of the matter is that it has been the quietest city in Israel. There was not one single event in the heart of the city." WIDE CAMEL USED FOR TOURISTS RIDES LYING ON GROUND SCU CAMEL YAWNING
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: REUTERS - EDIT 141, LIFE 2, JUNE 11,2001
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVA7PTB4DIR0FSA62LNQ22SA82JX
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A lull in fighting has brought a brief respite to the Holy Land - but it has not brought tourists. Local Israeli and Palestinian trade has dropped following eight months of unrest that has turned the area into a perceived danger zone for international tourists.
    The winding streets of Jerusalem's old city, trod by thousands of Christian, Jewish and Muslim pilgrims through the ages, have been empty but for a few street vendors hanging on to a meagre income, hoping for better days.
    The sound of footsteps, tourguides broadcasting the history of the town over megaphones and the noise of haggle and banter, are all gone.
    With the death toll in the eight-month old Intifada well past 500, another prominent victim of the violence is tourism.
    Before last autumn, thanks to massive growth in the tourist industry, Israel's economy was sizzling. Eight months later, the violence and a Nasdaq crash has slowed it down to a crawl.
    Real estate values in hi-tech centres in Tel Aviv have crashed, and new apartments stand empty.
    El Al, the Israeli state airline, overbooked a year ago and ordering new planes, is now canceling routes, selling jets and laying off employees following reports it might go bankrupt.
    Israeli five star hotels have reported occupancy rates as low as 25 percent, while Palestinian hotels have reported occupancy rates of just four percent.
    Last year, the tourist trade accounted for 7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now tens of thousands of hotel and restaurant workers are jobless.
    Growth projections for the year have been downgraded to two percent from 4.5 percent just months ago.
    The contraction of the Palestinian economy is even more drastic. Unemployment has quadrupled in the past eight months and trade has almost ceased.
    In an ancient street of Jerusalem's old city, a trader sums it up: "Our business since the Intifada is down by ninety-five percent. Even before business was not that good, but its going (down) ninety five percent. But we still surviving . We Survive until a solution comes," said stall owner Ziad Hashima.
    Much larger overheads are needed to run hotels. Even top five-star hotels have been feeling the pinch as pilgrims and tourists alike have been staying away from the Holy City.
    The numbers of foreigners who visited Israel in March 2001 -- some 130,000 -- was half that of the previous year.
    But while Jerusalem and areas in northern Israel including Tiberias have seen dramatic reductions in tourist numbers, Israel's tourist ministry has focused on increasing domestic travel to areas seemingly unaffected by the fighting.
    The Dead Sea resorts and Dead Sea city of Eilat have as a result been less badly effected, according to Jerusalem's Hyatt Hotel manager, Roni Timsit.
    "The hotels in the east of the city, most of them are closed. But the rest of the country -- Jerusalem is more effected and Tiberias -- but Tel Aviv, Eilat and the Dead Sea are little effected. I don't know with (the) new situation, the bombing from Friday night, I don't know what will happen.
    For the time being who is most effected is Jerusalem and Tiberias," he said.
    In light of recent violence Mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, described the city as one of the "quietest" in the region.
    "There was not one single event in the heart of the city,"
    he said.
    Sun-seekers may be braving the region, but cultural tourists are not.
    A German actor attending an international cultural festival in Israel boarded the first plane out of the country after his beachfront stroll was interrupted by the thunderclap of a suicide bomber blowing up himself and twenty young clubbers.
    Others involved in the Israel Festival have braved the security threat, but as Hungarian violinist "Chico" Demetz explained, not without a little prayer.
    The music may have brought relief from the violence but the fighting raged on until a fragile ceasefire began over a week ago.
    As international mediators attempt to enforce the ceasefire, the tourist industry is holding its breath to see whether it faces another year of gloom and doom, or the chance to revive its ailing fortunes.
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