The director of tourism organizers in Israel: We’ve become an isolated state like North Korea because of the Gaza war
Director of the Chamber of Incoming Tourism Organizers to Israel, Yossi Fattal, said that his country has become an isolated country like North Korea, with dozens of companies reluctant to fly there after the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Chamber of Inbound Tourism Organizers to Israel is considered the representative body in the field of inbound tourism and brings together most of the travel agents working in this field.
In an interview with Maariv newspaper, on Wednesday evening, Fattal said, “Before the crisis, there were 250 airline companies operating in Israel, and now only 45 companies are operating”.
He added: “Israel is currently completely isolated from the world. 80 percent of flights today are operated by aircraft from Israel belongs to El Al company”.
The director of the Incoming Tourism Chamber which is an independent/non-profit entity, went on to say, “With regard to aviation, we have become one of the most isolated countries in the world, like North Korea”.
He considered this isolation “to a large extent an unfortunate victory for Hamas over Israel,” emphasizing that “the war harms Israel’s strategic image”.
Fattal continued, “Israel should have created a situation in which, despite the war, it found a way to facilitate and encourage tourists to come here”.
He said, “Jordan and Egypt, which are also affected, finance the airlines that bring tourists to them… Today, Israel doesn’t fund insurance for foreign airlines, only Israeli ones”.
Fattal emphasized, “The insurance premiums required to travel to Israel are enormous”.
He continued, “From the day the basic phase of the war ends, it will take at least half a year to restore the country’s image and return the airlines”.
He added, “It will take two or three years for the tourism sector in Israel to recover”.
Fattal pointed out, “There is a widespread cancellation of tourism trips for the entire current year”.
Inbound tourism to Israel has declined significantly since the beginning of the war, and it was expected that 900,000 tourists would arrive during the first three months of the war, but the actual number shrank to only 190,000, according to a previous report by the Israeli economic Calcalist website, in January.
