After coronavirus, Nazareth and Nof Hagalil plan tourism rehabilitation

During the meeting, it was noted that the effective cooperation between both mayors helped avoid the riots, but tourism is still low in the cities.

"I see great importance in coming to and supporting the city of Nazareth especially during a period of social tension in Israel," Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen said.

Farkash-Hacohen has worked with the Finance Minister to continue assistance in the tourist industry and noted that she is also "working to return tourism to Israel," with a pilot program having already begun.

"Political and security instability comes at a price and negatively affects, in my opinion, our internal social resilience and we should not ignore that. Nazareth and Nof Hagalil are great examples of coexistence and mutual respect and I see special importance in being here now," she said in support of visiting the cities, that are in need of local tourists, as coronavirus regulations still prohibit most foreign nationals to visit the country. 

Hotel occupancy has drastically declined in the cities, dropping from 90% capacity to 8% in April. The crisis caused 66% of the hotels to close since the start of the pandemic, the Tourism Ministry reported.

"We are licking the wounds, waiting for tourists to come back here so we can revive business. It's painful," Amir Haik, the head of the Hotel Association said in response to the decline. 

“None of us have expected such a horror scenario, as we have gone through in recent months. By March 2020 we were at a rate of half a million tourists a month, advancing to a peak of 5 million tourists," the General Director of the Tourism Ministry, Amir Halevi, explained how badly Israel's tourist industry was hit by the pandemic. 

Halevi said the Tourism Ministry has presented a plan to bring international tourists back and preserve its infrastructure, but that until it takes effect, Israel's cities are relying on domestic tourism. 

"We intend to work to return Israeli tourists to Nazareth. The ministry has invested heavily in Nazareth and we are see that and are about to invest and upgrade additional infrastructure. We need to be optimistic, and very soon we will see the Israeli visitors back here and later also tourists from abroad," Halevi added.

Many hotel and business owners attended the meeting run by the Hotel Association.

"We should not talk about coexistence, we should do it,"  Haik announced. "We will work for the coexistence for all citizens in the country."

Haik described the coronavirus crisis as hitting the car breaks, causing the country to stop, the world to stop, and tourism to stop along with it. 

Some 75% of Nazareth's guests were tourists from outside of Israel, Haik said.

"We will help the Tourism Minister to do everything she can to bring the tourists back to Israel. At the same time, Israelis need to go to hotels, restaurants and other businesses in Israel," he suggested.

Nazareth's mayor, Ali Salem found the meeting "very important" as the city has struggled through corona and the recent conflict and its 110,000 residents just want to return to "a normal life of coexistence in this country."

"I want to greet all of you in our city," Salem invited Israelis to visit Nazareth.