NO LOGICAL REASON TO GO THERE. EVERYBODY LOOKING TO RIP YOU OFF. MANY WOMEN WORK THERE AS PART TIME HOOKERS..(SORRY) BUT ITS TRUE. WENT FOR 2 DAYS TO AKABA. BEAUTIFUL ROOM WITH FREE BUFFET ALL DAY PAID $ 50.00 PER DAY. ALL SPOT LESS GREAT SERVICE AND SUPER CLEAN ROOMS. QUIET NOBODY TRIED TO RIP ME OFF. ENJOYED MYSELF VERY MUCH.

Expensive hotel prices as well as no train station is the biggest problem.

Eilat is very ugly, a beautiful geography ruined by a city with no town planning. A bizarre hotel ghetto, with hotels stacked on each other, cheap mall right on the beach, dirty, weird ugly buildings of no style. They should tear the whole thing down and start over. As for the fact 80% of the revenue is tourism, nothing prevented them from building a university or a film studio or high tech - they simply relied on people showing up at their ugly over priced hotel rooms. Eilat was the worst part of Israel.

minutes ride from an airport will ruin a town!
As if any other tourist attractions around the world had their landing strips smack in the middle of town squares!
I am amazed that people are willing to come here and pay these bloated prices for the very average experience they get (at best)
I thought that being absolute suckers & overpaying for practically EVERYTHING was reserved for us, "smart" Israelis!?

What they want is to sell (or they already sold) the land of Sde Dov to contractors. It is a money making business and has nothing to do with travelling. Getting to Tel Aviv from Lod airport also takes 25 minutes at night and 3 hours during the day.

Eilat's real problem has nothing to do with Sde Dov and everything to do with the fact that the city has never invested a penny in anything but tourism and when it comes to tourism invest properly.
The hotels are overpriced all year round and there is not enough of them, attractions are limited and after the beaches close for the night the big attraction is a flea market and some fairground rides, the city is stuck in a time warp.
Land prices in Eilat are much cheaper than the center of the country so why not offer financial incentives for business to relocate then there will be other sources of income because without it if the tourism.

The international airport that is a whole 25 minutes drive from the city is actually an opportunity for both tourism and big business if the city tries to attract it as Ovda was a military airbase not properly equipped for modern planes.
Their beloved Sde Dov, its actually a very inconvenient because its closes at night and its so small you have to cue up outside, it has no transport links and cannot handle international flights whilst Ben Gurion has all of the things Sde Dov does not so much more convenient.

Instead of complaining about the fact the new airport is 25 minutes out of town then the city should invest in public transport, how about a high speed railway from the airport - city?
Eilat airport and Sde Dov had their charm but the Israelis will learn to start traveling from Ben Gurion and the international tourists can now fly direct to a proper international airport, the cities tourism industry will not collapse without Sde Dov and its time to put nostalgia aside and move on and see the potential benefits of chance and embrace it instead of fighting a losing battle to stop it.

Eilats problem is not the closure of Sde Dov as Ben Gurion is more than adequate especially if you consider its superior transport links to Sde Dov, the fact its open all night which is better for people coming to and from Eilat.
The fact they are complaining it takes a whole 25 minutes to get to town from the airport just shows they have been spoilt having the little city airport and detached from the reality that 25 minutes drive is nothing, this is not Star Trek

This new airport is an opportunity for Eilat if they embrace it rather than whine about the loss of their beloved Sde Dove, land is cheaper in EIlat than the centre of the country so why not offer financial incentives to attract big business get an income that doesn't rely on tourism and for the tourists how about new attractions becuse once the beaches closed the city is boring.
At night time just about all there is for tourists is a flea market selling junk and some fairground rides, its a city stuck in a time warp but doesn't seem to want to change.

The city planners should go down to Egypt for a day see why Sharm El Sheik is far superior to Eilat and then spend a little bit of money and make it a better place so more tourists want to come and non tourism related business will relocate to Eilat.