Days of war: The tourist city of Eilat was supposed to "enjoy" now a good period of mild weather and a better situation in terms of security compared to other cities. Despite this, many businesses in the city in the areas of attractions and commerce suffer from a low number of visitors and a significant decrease in revenues.
Another reason for this is the large number of evacuees from the envelope and the north in the city, for whom attractions are not naturally at the top of their priorities. There are now more than 60,<> evacuees in Eilat.
According to Dr. Ofir Miller, Chairman of the Israel Attractions Association: "The situation in Eilat is not good. On the one hand, the city is full of evacuated people, but in terms of their mood and what they went through, there is less consumption of leisure products. This is in addition to an uncertain economic situation, which does not help businesses. Some businesses have even pitched in for free to open their doors. As far as businesses are concerned, they are trying to get back to an emergency routine.
Survivors of a massacre from Kibbutz Nir Oz at a hotel in Eilat, photo: AFP.
"The roads are a little fuller and schools are opening, but the problem is that there is no mental availability to spend on consumption. People think about whether to take the kids to an attraction when they know they have a minute and a half notice in the area. It's not a basic commodity or an emergency, we're at the end of the chain."
Don't cover expenses
Ofer Glazer, owner of Waterland, Eilat's new water park, which was built at an investment of NIS 115 million, told Israel Hayom that "this is a severe to fatal blow to the park and almost zero visitors recently. This is with the exception of promotions for evacuees, where donors come to us and ask, and I subsidize tickets for 40 shekels instead of 120 shekels. I don't even cover half the cost of operating the park.
"We support 80 families, and we haven't started talking about expenses like municipal taxes, water and more. This is a large water park, and I estimate the damage at about NIS 1.5 million for October – it's a significant damage.
"Eilat works all year round and now it was supposed to be an amazing season due to the mild weather, which stands at 27 degrees. The evacuees are severely traumatized, they barely go out to the pool at their hotel."
Hotel where rooms were donated to evacuees, Eilat, photo: Yossi Avrahami
Eli Yahav, owner of the Fantasy attraction complex in Ice Mall Eilat, also points to a similar picture. "In terms of turnover, there was a 50% decrease in October after the holidays compared to a normal October. In addition, expenses have greatly increased because we are committed to employing more workers, and we offer children in the envelope free tickets. Also, a large audience pays half the cost of tickets.
"The hotels are full, but this is a crowd that didn't come on vacation. Most of them are traumatized and separated from home. Even if they have not experienced something direct, they are in forced isolation from home and are not in a vacation atmosphere. They don't know how long they're coming, and the stay has been forced upon them.
"All the owners of the attractions in Ice Mall offer free attractions to the residents of the envelope. We offer the Maze of Mirrors and Seven Dimensions Cinema for free. Ice skating is also free for residents of the envelope, as is the Mega Zipline and Trampoline Park."
Strengthening the local economy
It should be noted that this week the Eilat Municipality announced the launch in the coming days of a project aimed at strengthening the local economy. The "Business Home" project in the Economic Development Department and the Municipal Tourism Corporation is designed to assist guests staying in Eilat in the shadow of the war, and at the same time to strengthen the local economy and the city's resident business owners.
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