January 15, 2020

Tel Aviv plans 5,000 new hotel rooms in next 5 years

Globes, 15.01.2020, Michal Raz-Chaimovich

4.5 million tourists visited Israel in 2019. The Tel Aviv Hotels Association reports that hotel occupancy was 76% in the city, compared with a 70% nationwide average. Hotels in Tel Aviv had a total of 8,800 rooms, 500 more than in 2018.

The number of hotel overnight stays in greater Tel Aviv - Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Herzliya, Ramat Gan, and Bat Yam, where there is a total of 10,000 hotel rooms - grew 25% to 4.7 million. Hotel overnight stays by foreign grew 16% and hotel overnight stays by Israelis by 6%. Hotel overnight stays in Tel Aviv proper totaled 3.85 million, most of them by foreign tourists.

Herzliya also benefited from the tourism boom. The city has 1,600 hotel rooms, with 69% average occupancy. The highest proportion of foreign tourists staying at hotels in the Tel Aviv area came from the US (31%), followed by the UK (8%), France (8%), Germany (7%), and Russia (5%).

Tel Aviv Hotels Association CEO Oded Grofman says, "We have seen new investments by international and Israeli companies, and hotels' revenue grew 10% this year to $850 million. The revenue for the area's economy from tourism is estimated at NIS 8 billion. The Tel Aviv area is getting good public exposure, which is of great help in promoting Israel's global image. Hoteliers will continue taking steps to give tourists the perfect experience in 2020."

The vision unveiled by the Tel Aviv Hotels Association is an additional 5,000 hotel rooms in the next five years. This vision should take into account that tourists are also being offered an estimated 10,300 apartments and rooms for rent.

Another painful problem that hoteliers need to take into account is that Tel Aviv is a global leader as a tourist destination in high prices, as well as in ratings (on the beer index, for example).

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 14, 2020