Business is bouncing back in Bethlehem after two years lull during the coronavirus pandemic, lifting spirits of residents in the traditional birthplace of Jesus ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Streets are bustling as Bethlehem welcomes tourists. Hotels are fully booked, and months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting appears to be having little effect on the vital tourism industry.
Head of the Bethlehem Hotel Association, Elias Arja, disclosed that tourists are hungry to visit the Holy Land’s religious sites after suffering through lockdowns and travel restrictions in recent years.
Arja expects the rebound to progress into next year.
“We expect that 2023 will be booming and business will be excellent because the whole world, and Christian religious tourists especially, they all want to return to the Holy Land.”
Elias Arja
Christmas is normally peak season for tourism in Bethlehem, located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem.
In pre-pandemic times, thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world came to celebrate. However, the figures plummeted during the pandemic.
Although tourism has not fully recovered, the present groups of visitors are an astounding improvement and encouraging sign.
Since the Palestinians do not have their own airport, most international visitors come to Bethlehem via Israel.
Israeli Tourism Ministry Expectant Of About 120,000 Tourists
The Israeli Tourism Ministry is expecting about 120,000 Christian tourists during the week of Christmas. That compares to its all-time high of about 150,000 visitors in 2019, but is far better than last year.
As it has done in the past, the ministry plans to offer special shuttle buses between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Christmas Eve to help visitors go back and forth.
“God willing, we will go back this year to where things were before the coronavirus, and be even better.”
Hanna Hanania
Bethlehem’s mayor, Hanna Hanania disclosed that about 15,000 people attended the recent lighting of Bethlehem’s Christmas tree, and that international delegations, artists and singers are all expected to participate in celebrations this year.
“Recovery has begun significantly,” Hanania said, though he noted that the recent violence, and Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank, always have some influence on tourism.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the territory, including Bethlehem.
The Christmas season comes at the end of a bloody year in the Holy Land. According to official figures, approximately one hundred and fifty Palestinians and thirty-one Israelis have lost their precious lives in the Israeli-Palestinian war in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.
Israel says most of the Palestinians who were killed were militants, but stone-throwing youths and some people not involved in the violence have also been murdered.
The fighting, largely concentrated in the northern West Bank, reached the Bethlehem area earlier this month.
Residents, however, seem determined not to allow the fighting to dampen the Christmas cheer.
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