Christmas: Bethlehem welcomes tourists after COVID-19 pandemic lull
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Raven Ruma
- . December 15, 2022
- . Update: December 15, 2022 7:12 pm
Following two years of sluggish business due to the coronavirus outbreak, Bethlehem is experiencing a resurgence of activity just in time for the Christmas season.
Tour groups are thronging the streets. Hotels are completely booked, and the crucial tourism sector looks to be unaffected by months of bloody Israeli-Palestinian violence.
After having to endure lockdowns and travel restrictions in recent years, according to Elias Arja, director of the Bethlehem hotel association, travellers are eager to see the religious sites of the Holy Land. He anticipates the recovery to last into the following year.
According to Arja, owner of the Bethlehem Hotel, “we anticipate that 2023 will be bustling and business will be fantastic since everyone in the globe, and Christian religious travellers in particular, want to return to the Holy Land.”
Recently, dozens of groups from almost every continent gathered in front of the Church of the Nativity, which was constructed on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born, to take photos. In the nearby Manger Square, a big Christmas tree gleamed, and travellers flocked to the shops to purchase olive wood crosses and other mementos.
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In Bethlehem, which lies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem, Christmas is typically the busiest time of year for tourists. Thousands of pilgrims and visitors from all over the world gathered to celebrate before the outbreak.
However, the pandemic saw a sharp decline in those figures. Even though the tourism industry hasn’t fully recovered, the massive influx of tourists is a positive development.
In the Bethlehem New Store, the olive wood factory that he and his brother both co-own, Saliba Nissan stood next to a manger scene that was about 1.3 metres (4 feet) wide and said, “The city became a city of ghosts.” On a bus excursion, Americans were crowded into the store.
Since the Palestinians lack an airport of their own, most foreign travellers travel through Israel. During the Christmas week, the Israeli tourism ministry anticipates 120,000 Christian visitors.
Compared to previous year, when the country’s skies were blocked to the majority of foreign visitors, this is far better than its all-time high of roughly 150,000 visitors in 2019. The ministry intends to provide exclusive shuttle buses between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Christmas Eve to aid travellers, as it has in the past.
Hanna Hanania, the mayor of Bethlehem, remarked, “God willing, we will go back this year to where things were before the coronavirus, and be even better.”
