I lived in Safat for 30 years and what has happened is the result of very very poor decisions and care from one bad mayor after the other. Pity as there was so much potential. But there was the decision to close the one and only main road in the old city and turn it into a midrachov - and killed access. Then they opened the road, which had been paved with cobblestone and broke under traffic. Little invested in, little improved and nothing to see but far away vista. Tourists are not attracted to neglected area and poor management.

The religious institutions want to buy and the hotel owners feel that it is more profitable for them to sell up.
If there was enough money to be made the hotel owners wouldn't be selling but its obvious that there is not as much demand for hotels in Sfad now as there was in the past because people want different things now than they did in the past.

Neither the religious institutions or hotel owners is doing anything wrong just down to demand and supply and if there is more demand for hotels in future then properties will be bought and turned into hotels.

... ultra-orthodox Jews need place to stay when they visit.

Please do not blame Haredim for the decline of tourist hotel stays in Safed, to blame the ultra-orhodox, who are in the main struggling themselves ,is disingenuous. As for business " shutting down on saturdays " in Britain business " shut down " on their sabbath day ,which happens to fall on Sunday ,Workers do liketo have a day of rest you know ? Humdreds of thousands ,if not millions ,of tourists visit Safed ,the problem is that they only seem to visit for just a few hours ,few of them stay overnight ,they just pass through,which is why there is limited demand for hotels here. The hotels here are also very expensive and not every topurist can afford to stay in hotels in Safed. The city is also dirty with litte all over the streets . And Safed is a " SPIRITUAL " holy city, is can not be a place of great commerce ,leave that to Wall Street and the city of London. The many groups of Birthright and other tourists rarely spend more than 90 minutes in Safed ,but do not dare blame the ultra-orthodox for that. And all over the world, normal people like to have a sabbath day of rest .

Most people, the world over, are simply struggling to keep their heads above water financially ,with mortgages ,school fees ,car maintenance ,taxes etc and these days people just can not afford to stay in hotels ,which in Safed and Israel generally are not cheap.

More and more tourists are visiting Safed ,in the summer one can barely pass in the streets because of crowds of young tourists from overseas. The problem is these tourists come to Safed ,visit one or two old synagogues ,eat a Falafel Shawarma and immediately leave ,they spend less than 3 hours here ,which is obviously not good for local hotels . but for the writer if this article, Goel Beno ,to insinuate that tourists are not visiting is untrue .

' Every dog has its day .' And nothing lasts for ever...only Dr. Martens boots !

The reason the town of Safed has ' appeal ' for tourists is that businesses are shut on Saturdays .

The old city and centre of Safed is tiny, and tourists can see all there is to see in an hour, or half a day max. There is simply no need for tourists to spend a week or 10 days in Safed . In addition ,trends have changed, tourists these days seem to be in a hurry and have no time and little patience ,they are happy to visit Safed ,take a few "selfies "and jump on the bus exiting the town,sad but true. Add to that the lack of beaches and no sea and tourists lose interest. And secular israelis like to vacation in nearby Turkey ,where they can enjoy a holiday at a fraction of the cost of israeli hotels.
The old city of Safed is holy and beautiful and quaint, but it is tiny ,the remainder of the city ,where residents reside , is not so pretty .Blame the ultra-orthodox if you wish ,but that will not help matters .And the demand for hotels has simply fallen .

Like it ,or not, we are living in an age of fast and furious, and people have no time. No time to relax and smell the flowers and visit quaint and charming towns like Safed and meditate and chill. Tourists demand fast food, they have no time and little patience ,thousands of years of history means little to them ,they want it all explained in just a few minutes. Even Fast Food establishments struggle to keep up with the frenetic pace. So ,rather than come here and relax for a few days and slow down, they have short visits.

We do not need to turn this beautiful town into a boozed up seedy sex trap like Ayia Napa or Benidorm, G-d forbid. And if that means less $$$ ,so be it .

It's a beautiful city with a poor population because jobs are scarce. Obviously, it attracts people who want to study in yeshiva because of its spiritual vibe. The locals are very welcoming and invite people to partake Shabbat meals. If someone among you is interested in developing, then a Shabbat restaurant would probably be a hit because once Shabbat comes in tourists have literally nowhere to go. Just saying!