Coronavirus outbreak threatens Israeli tourism

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The deadly coronavirus outbreak has seen serious declines in tourism to Israel, Globes has reported.

Since first surfacing during December in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, the coronavirus has spread across a lot of the world and infected over 67,000 persons during writing. As such, the tourism industry has taken a huge hit, especially regarding tourists likely to and from East Asia.

However, according to Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association director-general Yossi Fattal, tourism to and from Israel is facing a drop of 50% to 60%.

Some of these seem to be to be cancellations from groups that had already booked trips to the Jewish state - including from Europe. Currently, these cancellations are just a marginal 10%, but as Fattal explained, this reflects a worldwide trend.

"We're immediately holding emergency discussions, where we'll talk about how precisely to deal with the probability of mass cancellations," he said. "The marketplace is in shock. We're getting dozens of calls from groups in Europe and the united states. We're concerned about the cancellations, and in addition concerned about the financial health of suppliers in Israel, given the cancellations of services that our partners abroad [tourism wholesalers] bought for the groups. It's 10% cancellations now, but it's clear that this will increase."

Travel agents are in shock, too.

"Travelers who purchased a vacation in Warsaw are calling me, plus they are worried," one agent told Globes. "The market in Israel is affected by the panic shown by medical Ministry.

"You will find a drastic decline in bookings for East Asia, and that is understandable - but bookings on the whole attended to a standstill, even for Passover flights to Verona or Cyprus."

Naturally, these cancellations will hit happen to be and from East Asia the hardest. The timing is particularly poor for Japan, as direct El Al flights between Tel Aviv and Tokyo are set to get started in March. However, because of "the warnings by medical Ministry... the general public is panicking, rather than taking chances on East Parts of asia."

This comes as 15 Israelis are stuck quarantined on a cruise liner off the coast of Japan, which includes been barred from entry into the country as a result of cases of coronavirus detected up to speed. Currently, 285 cases have already been confirmed on the ship, the second-largest concentration of coronavirus cases beyond China. On Sunday, it had been announced that three Israelis have already been confirmed to be infected.

What's also notable is that a number of these cancellations happen at the last minute. This, a realtor explained, is basically because travelers know that they don't be able to get refunds because of their flights, so they prefer to hold back before last moment.

A fresh record for tourism to Israel was broken in 2019 with 4.55 million tourists visiting the country. This reflected a continued upsurge in tourism year after year, and this trend was forecast to keep into 2020. However, despite the fact that not really a single case of the coronavirus has been reported in Israel, the outbreak may ruin any plans of breaking the record once more.
Source: https://www.jpost.com

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