HOTELS
November 2022
ISRAEL TO BUILD 8,000 NEW HOTEL ROOMS BY 2023 AS TOURISM RAMPS UP Hotel occupancy rates nearing pre-pandemic levels, though many bookings this year still Israeli ‘staycationers’ T he Israeli Tourism Ministry has made commitments to build some 4,500 new hotel rooms this year, with another 4,000 or so next year, as travelers return to the country and the tourism industry picks up again following the aftermath of the
pandemic. By contrast, just around 5,000 rooms in total came to market in the five years preceding the outbreak of COVID-19. The ministry said this week that it is working to speed up the building of new rooms (through extensions to existing hotels and the creation of new hotels) to enhance competition in the market, and ultimately to make holidaying in Israel more affordable. “Adding rooms will allow us to host more tourists, who will bring a lot of money into the economy. Successful marketing of land [for hotels] is another step on our way to meet the
goal I set for tourism in Israel: hosting 10 million tourists a year by 2030. We will continue to act to encourage and accelerate the establishment of tourist accommodation rooms in Israel, and to remove more and more barriers in the industry,” said Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov. A number of tenders for hotel development are currently open in Ashkelon, Kiryat Shmona, Kiryat Motzkin, and Katzrin. They are part of 2022 plans to add 770 rooms across the north of the country, 2,100 rooms in the South, and 1,650 rooms around the Dead Sea.
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