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Eilat is currently marking the return of Pesach, there is only one problem that worries her
After a year of economic crash, the resort town believes the upcoming holiday will be a springboard for residents, 40% of whom are unemployed.
"It's an injection of oxygen that we desperately need," says a restaurateur in the city and hotels indicate high occupancy, but if they fail to recruit working hands soon, the holiday will be recorded as a miss.
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Eilat
unemployment
Hotels
Corona virus
Yanir will defend
Saturday, March 13, 2021, 11:00 p.m.
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November heralded the beginning of the third wave and the city sank again.
The promenade in Eilat, February (Photo: C Media Photo)
The feeling of hope for change is familiar to the residents of Eilat.
They experienced it about three months ago, when the city was declared a "green island" and the signal was given to retrain the businesses and hotels.
Then, at the beginning of November, there were less than 550 hospitalized people from Corona across the country, and in the southern city a system of speed tests was set up at the entrance to it and the places of entertainment and recreation adapted themselves to the absorption of vacationers.
It soon became clear that November heralded the start of the third wave and the city sank again.
Today, when more than five million citizens have already been vaccinated in the first dose and close to four million in the second dose, the feeling of hope is once again nestling in the residents of Eilat, and optimism is raising its head.
About two weeks after Passover, Eilat expects full occupancy during the holiday and an economic recovery, albeit slow and gradual, that will follow.
The new problem: shortage of workers.
It bothers Eilat very much.
But despite this - after a difficult year and a severe economic crisis that caused thousands of unemployed in the city, business owners in the southern city believe that the upcoming holiday and the tens of thousands of vacationers who come to the city will bring it back to life.
More on Walla!
Limited holiday meals without traffic restrictions: The Ministry of Health discusses the outline for Passover
To the full article
for further reading
"Change in the fight against the virus": the optimistic indices - and the forecasts that will determine the easing of Passover
The Corona commissioner changes direction: "Estimates that there will be no closure until Passover"
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The resort town has had an empty and difficult summer.
Eilat Beach, September 2020 (Photo: Flash 90, Yossi Zeliger, Flash 90)
According to Meir Yitzhak Halevi, the mayor of Eilat and the candidate for the Knesset on behalf of the "New Hope" party, if there are no aggravations on the part of the Ministry of Health, Passover 2021 will be the economic springboard for workers in hotels, commerce and tourism.
"Already today we are starting to see conferences coming to Eilat. Eilat is waking up," says Yitzhak Halevi.
"I hope that from here we are embarking on a good path that will reduce the large gaps created in the past year as a result of the closure of the entire tourism industry on which the city is based."
According to Halevi, the coming Passover will not solve the problems and there are economic vulnerabilities that will take a long time to repair.
"Unfortunately, many businesses in the city have closed and not opened. The number of unemployed in the city will also decrease slightly but will still be high. Today there is 40% unemployment in the city and businesses that are closed. When everything opens on Passover and north we will still have 20% unemployment in the city. On Passover, there is no doubt that the city will come back to life. "
Slowly, the restaurants in the city are back in operation (Photo: official website, Liram Productions)
The traffic in the streets and in the hotel area is beginning to remind Eilat of beautiful days from the past, and it has a part in the feeling of optimism that nestles in hearts.
Ronen Moore, the owner of the Pago and Ginger restaurants, can finally smile a little.
About three months ago he spoke in a conversation with Walla!
He and other restaurateurs in the city felt the economic collapse in their flesh. Now he tells of the return of vacationers to the city that began in recent days.
"There is work, we see people coming now and taking advantage. "The possibility of returning to routine and vacation in Eilat, we are definitely happy about the possibility of a normal life, as absurd as it is," he says. "The situation was a catastrophe in the past, even now there are difficulties.
There is a problem with manpower, no workers.
Although there are lots of unemployed in the city, there is tremendous difficulty in recruiting workers.
There are no waiters and cooks.
Towards Passover the feelings are optimistic.
Hopefully this is not a bubble that will burst inside us later.
We expect Passover to be full in the city.
We get responses.
"You start to feel like the restaurants are working from now on, it's an injection of oxygen that we desperately needed."
The vacationers will come, the workers are not yet hotels on the beach in Eilat, August (Photo: Flash 90, Moshe Shai)
"We did not work for a year, in the middle we opened for two months and then we closed again and we opened again and again," he said. Lior Cohen, owner of the "Electric on the Wave" water sports business and jeep tours in the city, returned some of his employees Recounts, "Last year was the most difficult financially I had, the whole of Eilat collapsed.
I deal in attractions and everything was closed.
I very much hope Shailat will work on Passover.
If the borders are closed - Eilat will be full.
I hope that many people will come, who will come to stimulate the economy in Eilat.
There are many businesses in Eilat that are still closed.
All the businesses in Eilat have gone through an economic crisis. "
Hotels in Eilat have been overcrowded in recent days and weekends report full occupancy. Hotel officials in the city expect a Passover celebration." There will be no available room in Eilat, "say some of them. Celebration: The shortage of working hands. "We need about 200 employees at Isrotel hotels in Eilat," says Etty Krihali, vice president of human resources at the network. "We have full occupancy during Passover. "The hotels are full, but those who will work and provide service. We are happy that we have high occupancy, but we ask everyone who wants to work - to come to Eilat."
The next two weeks and the holiday itself will mark the direction.
The checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city (Photo: Flash 90, -)
Eilat expects the upcoming holiday to put it back on its feet, but unlike other cities around the country where many businesses in the field of recreation and leisure are lacking workers, for Eilat it is critical. "As a city whose almost all businesses rely on tourism from Israel and abroad, without workers the economic recovery is expected to be long and difficult.
" About 6,000 businesses exist in the city, even in the periods when we reopened about 900 businesses remained closed and not sure what their future will be, "says the mayor. Yitzhak Halevi. "Business owners do not return all employees for reasons of efficiency. "One of the big problems is the illness that encouraged people to sit at home. Instead of transferring wages to business owners, so that they pay more to employees, they pay employees directly, so some prefer to stay at home. Today, some business owners in Eilat are left without workers."
The next two weeks and the holiday itself will mark the direction to the southern resort town. Eilat wants to see the declining morbidity and public immunization manifested in full hotels, bustling restaurants and a bustling promenade. The city is now entering a race against time and the upcoming Seder night will be the first test of its recovery. If the tourism capacity in the city is high, but there are not enough workers to meet the needs of the businesses, the potential for rehabilitation will be damaged and Eilatites will have to wait for the continuation of spring and summer to get life back on track. Meanwhile, there is a sense of hope in the air, again, but this time it is stronger, and it is not long after the difficult year the city went through.
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