Israel tourism booming thanks to tight security, Christian visitors

ABU GHOSH, Israel — It was her first trip to the Holy Land, and hours before boarding a plane to fly back to Atlanta, Susan Thomas declared it to be the best trip she's ever taken.

"I feel like all of the sudden, the bible pops. It comes alive. I can picture where these places are. They're not just spots on a map," said Thomas, 62, who joined about 300 other believers on a recent two-week bible study tour of Israel.

They are among swelling numbers of Christian pilgrims, many from the United States, to Israel.

As violence has waned in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other popular sites, a record 2.8 million tourists are expected to visit Israel this year.

One third of those will come as part of Christian pilgrimage tours. Jewish visitors, a pillar of the tourist economy during less peaceful times, now account for just 30 percent of tourists to Israel as the number of Christian visitors has increased at a much greater rate, according to Israel's Ministry of Tourism.

Israeli authorities attribute a sharp decline in violence to the construction of a barrier — part fence, part wall — around Palestinian areas in the West Bank. The last suicide bombing in Jerusalem was nearly four years ago.

The number of tourists from the United States surpassed half a million in 2007 — more than double the number in 2003, and double the second largest group, from France.

"It's been incredible and it happened all of a sudden," said David Frank, a tour operator who has specialized in Christian tourism to Israel since 1971.

The influx comes despite rising travel costs — some package tour prices have increased by 60 percent over the past year — because of fuel surcharges and the weak dollar. A standard 10-day tour now runs roughly $3,300, including airfare, hotels, meals, tour guide, entrance fees and transportation.

"Compared to Europe, it's not as expensive, but it's getting there," Frank said. Unless the dollar gains value against the Israeli shekel and fuel prices stabilize, he said, "I think you're going to see some cancellations." Tourism officials said there's no evidence of a slowdown yet.

The Tourism Ministry launched a $3.5 million advertising campaign last year targeting American evangelical Christians, and officials attribute part of the increase in tourists to the efforts, which include television, radio and print ads featuring prominent Christian personalities.

American evangelicals are "the fastest growing (segment of tourists) and the easiest to get to," said Oren Drori, the ministry's deputy director general and head of marketing. "It has great potential. Huge potential."

The slogan of the campaign is, "You'll never be the same."

Kay Arthur, the Tennessee-based host of a popular bible study television program and author of more than 100 books and bible study guides, says in one of the television spots: "If you can only visit one country, one nation on the face of the earth it should be Israel because you'll never be the same."

In May, Arthur led 300 pilgrims on a 14-day tour of the Holy Land, with an optional two-day extension to the archeological site, Petra, in Jordan.

"The people that come with us see it not as a vacation," Arthur said just before returning to her native Chattanooga. "But they see it as an investment in their spiritual lives."

For many Christians, a visit to the Holy Land is an affirmation of faith, a feeling of walking in the footsteps of Jesus and the prophets.

The growth in Christian tourism is big business for the Jewish state. Hotels, bus companies, guides and souvenir shops all benefit. Some 7 percent of Israel's workforce is employed in the tourism industry. Foreign tourists spent $2.4 billion in 2006, or 4 percent of Israel's total exports.

The Tourism Ministry is pushing for more hotels to be built in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as adding flights from Europe and the United States in order to meet the goal of attracting 5 million tourists by 2012.

Tour operators say high-end hotels in Jerusalem are no longer taking group reservations for next spring, a popular time for Christian tours because of the mild weather.

"It's the best year that we've had since the hotel has been open," said Shalom Uman, general manager of the 304-room Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem. "Actually we refused a lot of business this year because we were fully booked."

The hotel specializes in evangelical pilgrims in part because of the location, a five-minute walk to the Garden Tomb, considered by many Protestants to be the site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus.

During the first four years of the decade, in the midst of Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem, occupancy at the hotel reached as low as 15 percent. "We lost a lot of money obviously. We were all frustrated from the situation. You had to fire staff," Uman said.

Like many Israelis, he is guarded about the future.

"We do not forget we are in the Middle East," he said. "Things can change in a minute."

Robert W. Gee's e-mail address is bgee@coxnews.com.