Jewish, Muslim, Christian Jerusalem Old City vendors say reduced tourism is harming businesses

Shopkeepers across the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem’s Old City say the weakened state of inbound tourism to Israel over the last three years, since the outbreak of war, has put businesses under prolonged strain.

Speaking this week to The Jerusalem Post, vendors pointed to a shortage of flights, high airfares, and lingering fears abroad over security as chief reasons traffic into Israel has been suffering.

“The day-to-day tourism is horrible,” Eitan, the owner of Mira, a family-owned shop in the Jewish Quarter, said. “Not too many people. There’s not the traffic that there should be.”

The main problem, he said, was that there were a reduced number of flights and that the flights that were operating were too expensive for many people, and people are afraid to come."

“I know a lot of people who cancel their — like, sometimes the airline canceled their trip, sometimes they could not come because of the prices,” he said. “Once you have limited seats available, not everybody can come.”

Eitan, whose family has lived in the Old City since 1968, operated the business since 1984, and has been through “all the intifadas” and “all the wars,” said that a meaningful recovery from the tourism slump will remain out of sight until the situation with the airlines improves.

“As long as the airlines are not coming back to Israel, I don’t see any solution,” he said.

Similar concerns were voiced elsewhere in the Old City.

Dia, a long-time vendor in Jerusalem’s Old City Arab Quarter whose family operates the well-known “Alabama – The Heart of Dixie” shop, said the decline in tourism had left business “very, very slow,” with many visitors still hesitant to come because of the war.

“It's very safe, the Old City,” he said, but due to the image Israel has had abroad since the war began on October 7, 2023, business remained low.

“Three years now, nobody comes,” he said.

Hassan, a souvenir vendor near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, also painted a negative picture, describing business as “very weak” and saying there were “no tourists now.”

He recalled that before the war broke out, there was a period of eight to ten months when business was good, “but now, it’s zero.”

Hassan continued, saying that in his view, the solution lay in bolstering the number of flights coming into Israel.

In the Armenian Quarter, Garo Sandrouni, who operates a ceramics gallery with his wife, Sonia, said that even since the latest major round of strikes between Israel and Iran concluded earlier this year, he had not seen any improvement in the number of tourists coming through.

He said, though, that with the Jewish New Year coming up next month, vendors expected to see some progress.

“Now, everybody is expecting in September that it (the amount of inbound tourism) will be much more. Let's see. But now, there is not much difference from what it was like three months ago or four months ago.”

Like other vendors, Garo pointed to the cost of flights as the primary barrier choking off tourism to the country.

“They're much more expensive than before, and some people are also afraid to come,” he said.

Sandrouni added that the fear came from three places.

“People are afraid, first from the war, secondly from flights if they cancel, and thirdly from the expensive tickets,” he said.

He recalled clients who became stranded in Israel after foreign carriers canceled service, with some eventually traveling to Jordan to fly home.

Sandrouni added that the hits his business has taken over the last three years have been the worst in his four decades of operations.

“I have been here for like 40, 45 years on this street,” he said. “It is the worst thing that we have witnessed. I mean, from the October war until today.”

Speaking to the Post in June, tourism expert Dr. Eran Ketter pointed to broad structural problems hampering inbound tourism to Israel.

Looking specifically at the US, historically Israel’s largest source market, Ketter pointed to geopolitical instability, the stronger shekel, limited air capacity, and higher travel costs as factors suppressing demand.

Tourism expert: Problems around tourism limit visitors to just the highly committed

“Putting all of this together, we’re coming into a situation that only people who really want to travel to Israel, and can afford it, are traveling at the moment,” he said.

Ketter said greater political stability would be the “number one enabler,” allowing the industry to move from a nearly three-year “survival state” into “growth mode.”

Stability, he added, would also encourage airlines to resume service, bringing more competition and potentially cheaper fares.

Tourism Ministry Director-General Michael Izhakov, who spoke to the Post the following month, also identified the lack of flight accessibility as a major bottleneck to inbound tourism.

Tourism ministry director-general: With no flights, there is no tourism

“When there are no flights, there is no tourism,” he said, adding that the ministry was speaking with airlines and the Transportation Ministry and expected a rapid recovery once flights returned.

“We are waiting only for the flights,” he said. “Once the flights reopen, we will see a very rapid recovery in inbound tourism to Israel.”

The ministry has also been trying to stimulate demand through marketing and domestic tourism while preparing additional hotel capacity. Izhakov said the ministry had begun targeting Jewish audiences abroad more directly and had shifted some attention toward Israeli tourists when foreign visitors failed to return.

Earlier this month, Izhakov and tourism industry leaders met US Ambassador Mike Huckabee as part of the Israel Tourism Recovery Forum, where, according to the ministry, they discussed expanding direct US-Israel flights.

During the meeting, Huckabee emphasized his personal commitment to promote trips from the US to Israel.

“I will continue encouraging Americans to visit Israel, experience it firsthand, and discover the reality for themselves,” the ministry quoted the ambassador as saying.

For the vendors in the Old City who depend on this traffic, though, the recovery of inbound tourism and the expansion of flights into the country are things they say cannot wait.

Still, despite the economic situation they described, some remained optimistic.

“I’m a positive person,” Eitan said. “I believe things will be good again. When, we don’t know, but hopefully soon. We are here, and whatever God wants to give us, he gives us.”