The government approved a plan Sunday to speed up hotel construction in the West Bank, allocating 27 million shekels ($8.2 million) to remove planning barriers and provide grants for new hotel projects in the area.
According to data presented to the government, about 115 million shekels ($35 million) were invested in the West Bank hotel sector over the past decade, compared with 2 billion shekels ($606 million) in the rest of the country.
Haim Katz, Tourism minister
(Photo: Tomer Shunem Halevi)
The move is intended to increase lodging capacity and encourage tourists to spend more time in the area. The plan follows a government decision approved in May to allocate 50 million shekels ($15 million) for public tourism infrastructure in the West Bank.
The decision’s explanatory notes said the lack of available hotel-planning inventory is one of the main barriers to developing tourism in the West Bank. The Tourism Ministry will therefore work to advance hotel construction and take additional steps to enable land to be marketed for hotel projects.
For that purpose, 7 million shekels ($2.1 million) will be allocated from the ministry’s budget. In addition, the government approved the allocation of 20 million shekels ($6.1 million) from the Tourism Ministry’s development budget for grants to build, convert and expand hotels in the area.
Tourism Minister Haim Katz welcomed the decision, saying the plan would help realize the West Bank’s ‘enormous tourism potential’. “For the first time, we will lead a comprehensive move that combines planning, infrastructure development, the creation of land inventory for hotels and a dedicated track to encourage hotel construction,” Katz said.
“This will remove barriers, give developers greater certainty and lay the groundwork for more hotel rooms, increased tourism and a stronger local economy,” Katz said.