Priority areas changed. Hotel in Eilat
Will Michelin guide start rating Israel's hotels?
Hotel rating project is finally underway in Israel. Tourism Ministry will contact international companies for rankings, according to reports in Mamon and Yedioth Ahronoth. Tourism minister: Hotels in Israel are expensive and customers deserve better service
BERLIN – The program for rating Israel's hotels is underway. The Tourism Ministry has started preparing a call for proposals that will be presented to a number of companies abroad that specialize in hotel ratings, such as the Michelin and the AAA ratings.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said Saturday that the hotel ratings will start this year and will be conducted over the course of two years for NIS 5 million (about $1.35 million).
"The ones doing the ratings will be foreign companies specializing in this. We have yet to decide if the rating will be voluntary or mandatory," Misezhnikov said. According to him, the situation as it exists today, in which there are no hotel ratings, is "absurd."
In parallel with the hotel ratings, which will be carried out in conjunction with the Israel Hotel Association, the Tourism Ministry allotted NIS 8 million (about $2.16 million) to improve human resources in the hotel industry.
"The hotels in Israel are very expensive, and I am definitely not happy about this," said Misezhnikov. "It should not be that a person pays good money in order to come to a hotel, and afterwards they charge him money to use the gym and internet. When such high prices are paid for staying in a hotel, one would expect to receive better service than at the neighbors or any other place."
The tourism minister responded to hoteliers' claims that single-day tourism does not contribute financially to the state of Israel, and said that a tourist visiting Israel for a day spends many times more than a tourist visiting for a week or more.
"Furthermore, a tourist visiting for one day is exposed to Israel and later becomes an ambassador of the country and comes for a week trip and brings other tourists," he said.
According to him, the Tourism Ministry must be responsible for marketing land for hotels and tourist attractions, and not other government ministries. "Only we know the areas of demand and know to give them proper importance," he said.
"We are now changing the priority areas, and adding Tel Aviv, Netanya, Haifa, the Dead Sea, and Eilat to them," added Misezhnikov. "Changing the priority zones means that entrepreneurs who want to invest in these destinations can receive an exemption from the internal tender for foreign entrepreneurs who wish to invest in Israel. Without this, no leading international hotel chain entrepreneur will invest in Israel."
