Newswise — "Up until now, we have been able to market Eilat as "detached" from Israel, as a safe place, far from war and terror. The terror attack today had one immediate consequence: Eilat can no longer be marketed as a safe place," said Dr. Yoel Mansfeld, head of the Center for Tourism, Pilgrimage and Recreation Research at the University of Haifa, following this morning's terror attack. "Every time foreign tourism in Eilat sees signs of recovery, something happens to turn things around."
According to Dr. Mansfeld, while research that was conducted a decade ago revealed that British tourists who flew to Eilat on direct flights had no idea that Eilat was in Israel, today the situation is much different. The terror attacks in the past two years in the Sinai Peninsula and the intelligence about al-Qaeda cells active in Egypt and Jordan have increased awareness as to the geography and the triangle of borders between Israel, Egypt and Jordan and to the fact that Eilat is an integral part of Israel.
"The effect of the attack on internal tourism will be short-term. Israelis are resilient and they will be back in Eilat in a short time. The problem is with foreign tourism. As soon as Eilat was presented as being part of Israel, it automatically became thought of as a dangerous place, and now the terror organizations have proven this to be true."
"Time and again something happens to hurt foreign tourism in Eilat. First it was the wave of terror attacks that hit the entire country; then it was the attack in Sinai; after that there were katyusha rockets shot from Jordan at the Eilat airport; then the war in Lebanon; and now the terror attack in the city today. Just two months ago, the city hosted a large international conference for travel agents and signs of recovery were emerging, but the effects of today's attack could last at least six months, assuming it is an isolated incident and not the beginning of a new wave of terror," remarked Dr. Mansfeld.
According to Dr. Mansfeld, efforts need to be concentrated on large foreign tour operators to make sure that they don't remove Eilat from the world tour map. "Israel has to interact one-on-one with these travel agencies, quietly and directly, and certainly not embark on a large media campaign. Israel needs to remind these agents of the competitive advantages of tourism to Eilat and that, much to our dismay, terrorism is a global phenomenon that strikes at random and that no place on earth is immune.
We have been talking for a long time about breaches along the border between Israel and Egypt and how there are active al-Qaeda cells in Sinai and Aqaba, but in reality, there is nothing that can be done to stop their activities and ascertain that they don't cross the border from Egypt or Jordan into Israel. We need to remember that the war against these terror cells is very complex - both from an intelligence standpoint and from our ability to wipe them out," summarized Dr. Mansfeld.
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