Ze'evi may tie hotel taxes to occupancy 

Copyright 2001 Ha'aretz Daily Newspaper Ltd.
Article date: July 11, 2001
 

Tourist Minister Rehavam Ze'evi is considering backing a bill to allow hotel owners to pay arnona (municipal taxes) according to occupancy. Ze'evi says this hotel tax revision - like a tax model used in Greece - is needed to protect the sagging hotel industry.

In an attempt to put some wind in tourism industry sails, Ze'evi recently sent a letter to tourist professionals abroad who sell sea-cruise packages and have been shunning Israel's coasts since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Before the conflict 300,000 tourists arrived by boat each year. This trade too has almost shut down - sea-cruise companies have been skipping Israeli harbors, anchoring instead in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. In his letter, Ze'evi said realities in Israel differ sharply from what the world media show - television images are "extremely exaggerated" and Israel has an abundance of inviting tourist sites and opportunities, the minister said.

Speaking at a hotel executives conference last week in Tel Aviv, Ze'evi struck a similar chord, saying the biggest drop in tourism has come from countries saturated by media images hostile to Israel - meaning Europe and the United States. Israeli tourism depends directly on the presentation of Israel in world media, he said.
 

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