51 days since the beginning of the "Iron Swords" war and the impact on spending in Israel's main cities is becoming clear. Sheba, the developer and manager of the national credit card payment system, publishes credit card spending data during the first 6 weeks of the Iron Swords War in Israel's largest cities, and in the cities in the south and north that are affected by it.
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Tali Hollenberg, Sheba's VP of Marketing, Business Development and Sales: "Sderot and Kiryat Shmona continue to be the main victims economically as well, Eilat and Tel Aviv are affected by the war against the background of the cessation of tourism and the volume of return to work from offices."
The data show that credit card spending in Sderot and Kiryat Shmona was cut by about 80% in November as well. In other cities in the south and north, such as Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, Haifa, Tiberias and Nahariya, credit expenditures managed to recover and returned almost to their pre-war average levels. In the city of Netivot, the decline in expenses is still felt and stands at over 20%.
Credit expenses (illustration),
The other two cities affected by the war are Eilat and Tel Aviv. In Eilat, the extent of the decline in credit expenses continues to be 40 percent, while in Tel Aviv the decline is more than 20 percent during November as well. In the other large cities in the Shfela, Sharon and central regions, there is a recovery and a return to almost full routine in the shadow of the continuation of the war.
"The declines we saw in Sderot and Kiryat Shmona starting from the first week of the war continue to be about 80%, and this is related, first and foremost, to the fact that these two cities, as well as the communities surrounding them, are being evacuated from their residents at similar and even higher rates," explains Hollenberg, "The city of Eilat stabilized at a decline in expenses of 40%, and the reason for this is that although occupancy in hotels and guest rooms is very high, The public in them are evacuees and not tourists-vacationers who, as part of their vacation, carry out expenses of shopping, attractions and leisure, restaurants and cafes and more.
"In the cities of the center, the Sharon and the Shefela, thanks to the return to routine under the restrictions, the decline in expenses has almost completely halted, and there are already cities where the data even indicate an increase in expenses compared to the weekly average in 2023. In Tel Aviv, the decline is more than 20% in expenses, and this is related to a number of factors, including the incomplete return to work from offices, the postponement of the start of the academic year at universities and colleges, the damage to the leisure and entertainment industry, and the decline in tourism. Jerusalem has fully recovered from the declines in expenses it experienced, and we attribute this to the return of the city and the surrounding area to routine against the background of the cessation of shooting and the relative security quiet."
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