Mordechai Ben-Ari, president of El Al Israel Airlines said today that advanced bookings in El Al for the fall and winter seasons from the U.S. to Israel are exceptionally good “to a point where the demands can hardly be met,” and that starting from mid-October “it will be hard to get hotel rooms in Israel.”
Ben-Ari cited the improved military and political atmosphere in the Mideast and the reported economic recovery in the United States as major factors in the increased tourist movement from the United States to Israel in the months to come.
Addressing a press conference at El Al’s headquarters here, Ben-Ari conceded, however, that although El Al anticipated an increase of 16 percent this year in passengers, “we are getting less than we have anticipated.” He added that there is no decline in the number of El Al’s passengers this year compared with the year before.
Ben-Ari arrived here for meetings with airline executives and businessmen in the travel industry in order “to study the situation” and to decide on a course of action to encourage tourism to Israel and to find ways on “how to bring about change in moods in regards to travel in general, a mood that had an impact on trips to Israel,” he said.
Answering a question on the possibility of establishing charter flights to Israel, Ben-Ari said that El Al opposes charter flights and that he believes that the Israeli government will not change its policy on the issue, Charter flights to Israel, Ben-Ari contended, “will be detrimental to the national interest.” He added that charter flights do not bring more tourists to Israel, citing Scandinavia, the only place in the world that was granted charter rights to Israel, as a place where tourism to Israel is in its ebb.
(Meanwhile in Bucharest, Rumania, it was disclosed that El Al and the Rumanian state airline Tarom have come to an agreement according to which American tourists to Israel could stay six days in Rumania with no additional cost. The agreement was concluded last week when Ben-Ari visited Rumania.)
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