Tel Aviv hotels almost fully booked for summer
With summer vacation still far away, seaside city's hotels 80% booked for August. A 25% rise in tourist reservations noted since beginning of year
Eli Ziv, director-general of the Tel Aviv Hotel Association, told Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday that since the beginning of the year there has been a 25% increase in the number of tourists visiting the city and that this trend is expected to continue in the summer.
“As of now, the British are ordering hotel rooms for June and July. The French generally order rooms for August. Americans order rooms for July, and the Russians order throughout the entire summer season.
“In the upcoming months, Tel Aviv hotels will add 800 rooms. Amongst them, 280 rooms at the Crowne Plaza City Center at the Azrieli Towers, 130 suites at Kfar Maccabiah, 60 units at Savoy and more,” said Ziv.
He added that the past year has shown a tremendous increase in the amount of German tourists taking rooms in Tel Aviv. “Since the beginning of the year there has been a 38% rise compared to the first quarter of 2007.
"In addition, there is a 27% rise in tourists from Russia for the same period. The English market is also very good even though there has been a 2% decrease, but then British soccer fans arrived.”
Since the beginning of the year, there has been a 25% rise in the amount of Americans sleeping at Tel Aviv hotels.
In the first quarter of 2008, occupation of Tel Aviv hotel rooms was 74%, and of Jerusalem hotel rooms 76.5%.
