Tourism in Palestine

Bethlehem’s pilgrimage economy and its close relationship with Jerusalem form a central component of Palestinian tourism.[2] Religious travel is accompanied by accommodation, restaurants, souvenir production, shopping, and excursions to surrounding historical and religious sites.[5] The broader tourism landscape includes the Dead Sea and its surroundings, Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, and places significant to Muslims, Christians, and Jews.[1]

Bethlehem, Jericho, and Ramallah offer different kinds of visitor experiences: pilgrimage and heritage sightseeing in Bethlehem, religious and desert itineraries around Jericho, and hotels, museums, nightlife, and summer leisure in Ramallah.[3][6][7] Regional itineraries can cross several jurisdictions, linking Palestinian destinations with Jerusalem and other locations in Israel.[6][8] This relationship has supported shared tourism business while making transport, professional licensing, and access important elements of the industry’s organization.[4][8]

The sector’s economic importance extends beyond hotels to craftspeople, guides, restaurants, photographers, and street vendors.[9] Its concentration in Bethlehem makes local livelihoods particularly sensitive to interruptions in pilgrimage and international travel.[10] Efforts to broaden the visitor economy have included restored guesthouses, market tours, cooking classes, local music, and contemporary art attractions.[3][11]

The Church of the Nativity has been a focal point of Christian pilgrimage and a cornerstone of Bethlehem’s economy since its fourth-century foundation.[2] The Jordan River baptismal area also has a long pilgrimage history: a guide published in 2000 recounts an account of 60,000 pilgrims visiting in 1172 and describes thousands arriving until 1967.[6] Following the 1967 war, visits required special permission from Israeli military authorities; the same guide described five monasteries as having remained deserted since that year.[6]

Historical photographic collections document places and ceremonies later associated with regional tourist itineraries.[12][13] Stereographs created around 1916–19 include the Jerusalem–Jericho road, ancient and modern Jericho, Bethlehem street scenes, the Nebi Musa procession, and religious ceremonies at the Jordan River and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[12] A photographic album covering 1924–29 depicts tourists traveling in the region and includes Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Jerusalem, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea.[13]

Ramallah was an important regional summer resort before 1967.[14] By 1981 and again in 1991, a regional tourism table recorded 2,000 hotel rooms for the combined West Bank and Gaza category.[15] That measure captured accommodation capacity rather than the full scale of tourism, since room prices, occupancy, and activities outside hotels also affected the industry’s economic size.[15]

Israeli-PLO negotiations in Paris in late April 1994 produced arrangements for a Palestinian Tourism Authority, movement of tourists between Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories, and mutual recognition of tour operators, guides, and travel agencies.[15] These were negotiated arrangements, rather than a record that every provision had already been implemented.[15] The Gaza–Jericho agreement subsequently set out tourism powers and mechanisms for cooperation in the areas it covered.[4]

Early development discussions identified several potential markets.[15] Palestinians interviewed in 1994 envisioned Muslim religious tourism to Jerusalem reaching perhaps hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, with visitors staying in Palestinian hotels and some traveling onward to Bethlehem and Hebron.[15] Gulf Arabs and expatriates living in the Gulf were another prospective leisure market, with Ramallah’s cool summers and relaxed social atmosphere viewed as attractions.[15] Some visitors were expected to stay in the West Bank while taking day trips to Israel, although it remained unclear whether this would generate additional regional travel or redirect business from Jordan or Egypt.[15]

Tourist spending in the West Bank and Jerusalem was estimated at more than $150 million in 1995.[14] A commercial guide for fiscal year 2000 identified Bethlehem as the leading tourist site in the West Bank and Gaza and considered slightly more than one million annual tourists, including pilgrims, sufficient to sustain a viable industry.[14] It projected two to three million Bethlehem visits during the special commemorations of Jesus’ birth in 2000; this was an expectation, not a subsequently established visitor total.[14]

Hotel development was already under way, although existing Palestinian hotels were described as mostly small and needing improvements.[14] The same guide recorded a new three-star hotel with 24 rooms in Nablus, two new three-star hotels totaling 244 rooms in Bethlehem, and two new four-star hotels in Ramallah.[14] International-standard hotels were also under construction in Ramallah and Bethlehem.[14]

The Second Intifada brought a sharp contraction in tourism, with fewer than 50,000 arrivals in 2000–02.[1] Recovery subsequently brought increased accommodation capacity and, in the three years preceding the 2014 economic study, annual averages exceeding 500,000 arrivals and 1.2 million room nights.[1] For Bethlehem in 2007, an expected year-end total of 450,000 foreign visitors was reported, compared with 295,000 the previous year, alongside reports that every hotel room was occupied.[16] Christmas Day visitors included 7,000 Israeli Christian Arabs, and tourism police chief Fadel Badarin described the tourism situation as “great.”[16]

A separate account estimated 22,000 tourists in Bethlehem on Christmas Day 2007, 50 percent more than in 2006.[17] Israel introduced new screening procedures after complaints about queues at the Jerusalem–Bethlehem terminal and eased access during the Christmas season from December 24 to January 19.[17] These holiday figures describe a particular peak period rather than normal year-round demand.[17]

Hotel indicators improved during 2009–10.[18] Between June 2009 and March 2010, hotel guests increased by 13.7 percent, average nights stayed by 11.8 percent, and occupancy by 10.6 percentage points to 32.7 percent.[18] There were 140,009 hotel guests in the second quarter of 2010, while external tourism in Bethlehem and Jericho together reached 824,000 in the first half of 2010, compared with 441,000 a year earlier.[18]

Bethlehem received a reported 1.5 million visitors in 2010, described at the time as a record and partly associated with relaxed measures by Israel’s Civil Administration.[19] Regional developments also redirected demand: during unrest in Egypt in early 2011, some organized groups canceled Egyptian visits and stayed in Israel and Palestinian areas instead.[19] One Bethlehem hotel owner described nearly full hotels and a waiting list during the preceding week, a short-term change rather than a normal occupancy level.[19]

A 2012 account reported 1.7 million foreign tourists in the Palestinian territories so far that year and an increase in overnight hotel guests from 350,000 in 2005 to 1.5 million in 2011.[20] In 2013, Bethlehem was reported to have 3,800 hotel rooms, nearly half of West Bank capacity, with seasonal occupancy of 65–70 percent.[21] A 2014 account described the addition of 35 hotels providing about 3,000 rooms, eight more hotels under construction expected to add about 1,000 rooms, and approximately 1.2 million annual overnight stays.[5]

Tourism weakened again in 2015 and 2016 before rebounding.[22][23] Reported growth from January through April 2017 was 57.8 percent, the largest increase among destinations in the comparison, against approximately 400,000 tourists during the corresponding period a year earlier.[23] Approximately 2.76 million domestic and international tourist visits to the Palestinian territories were recorded for 2017.[24] Bethlehem’s mayor expected 1.2 million visitors in 2018.[22] A separate 2019 report said the tourism ministry expected 3.5 million visitors that year, up from a reported three million in 2018; the sources do not reconcile the differing 2018 totals or measurement scopes.[3]

COVID-19 measures and the loss of inbound tourism disrupted the industry, with the loss of inbound tourism throughout 2022 estimated to have adversely affected 37,800 workers.[25] During Israel’s planned reopening in 2021, Palestinian Authority hotels were excluded from the initial arrangements because they did not meet Israeli green-pass requirements.[8] Palestinian tourism businesses and the tourism minister sought arrangements allowing visitors to stay in Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities.[8]

A much sharper downturn followed the outbreak of war in October 2023.[9] The Palestinian tourism ministry recorded 2.5 million visitors to the West Bank and East Jerusalem from January to early October 2023, about 278,000 monthly; afterward, monthly arrivals fell below one percent of that level.[9] A ministry marketing official estimated that the industry had employed 35,000 people before the downturn and that fewer than three percent were working at the time of reporting.[9]

In late 2024, Bethlehem’s visitor total was reported as fewer than 100,000 for the year, and hotel occupancy had fallen from approximately 80 percent in early 2023 to around three percent.[10] Nearly all of the city’s 5,500 hotel rooms were empty, while only two of eight shops on the main stretch of Manger Square were open shortly before Christmas.[10] One hotelier had reduced his workforce from more than 120 employees to five; Bethlehem had more than 100 handicraft shops and 450 traditional handicraft workshops exposed to the downturn.[10]

Local workers interviewed in May 2025 estimated that 70 percent of Bethlehem’s workforce was unemployed.[26] By December 2025, Christmas celebrations were resuming after two years of near-total disruption, visitors were returning gradually, and the tourism ministry forecast approximately 100,000 tourists during Christmas week.[27] Hotel association chairman Elias Al-Arja reported holiday occupancy of about 70 percent in Bethlehem and its surroundings, with returning visitors mainly from Europe.[27] The account linked improved tourism to regular Ben Gurion Airport flights, described Palestinian security forces’ contribution to holiday preparations, and recorded plans for a December 24 procession involving 27 youth and religious groups.[27]

The 1994 Gaza–Jericho agreement authorized a Palestinian Tourism Authority to regulate, license, classify, and supervise tourism services, sites, and industries, promote foreign and domestic tourism, and develop tourist resources.[4] Each side was responsible for protecting and maintaining sites under its jurisdiction and publicizing reasonable visiting hours that accounted for religious and national holidays.[4] Licensed tourist vehicles could conduct tours in the other side’s area subject to technical requirements, while tourism entities could operate cross-jurisdiction tours under mutually agreed standards.[4] Licensed companies and agencies were to receive equal access to tourism facilities at border crossings, with a joint committee or tourism subcommittee addressing implementation problems.[4]

A later transfer protocol extended responsibilities covering tourism regulation, licensing, grading, supervision, development, marketing, and events organized by private, public, nongovernmental, and foreign bodies.[28] Development of services near sites was to be coordinated with the Civil Administration or another responsible authority, while Israel’s military government and Civil Administration retained security and public-order powers.[28] Palestinian-authorized businesses could conduct tours including Israel under agreed professional standards, and existing authorized West Bank businesses could continue pending those arrangements.[28] Palestinian-licensed vehicles could enter Israel when meeting the specified standards, and tourism companies were to have equal access to border tourism facilities under Israeli regulations.[28]

Bethlehem’s principal pilgrimage attractions include the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square, the Milk Grotto, and the Shepherds’ Fields; nearby sites also include the Field of Ruth and David’s Wells.[29] The Palestinian Authority emphasized attracting Christian pilgrims and invested in roads, shops, hotels, and other visitor infrastructure.[29] Christmas festivities extend from tree lighting in early December through the Armenian Apostolic Christmas mass on January 18–19.[2] Restoration at the Church of the Nativity repaired the roof and revealed wall mosaics, while a small relic believed by Christians to come from the original manger was returned from the Vatican and displayed in an adjoining chapel.[3]

Pilgrimage routes connect Bethlehem with Jerusalem, Jericho, desert monasteries, and the Jordan River.[6] A 2000 guide proposed seven routes, including Christian communities between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, desert monasteries and the Jordan, sites between Jericho and Jerusalem, and places associated with King Herod, including Solomon’s Pools and Herodion.[6] Stops included Rachel’s Tomb, Tantur, Mar Elias, the Kathisma Church, Jericho, Qarantal Monastery, and Wadi Kelt’s Monastery of St. George.[6] Most routes required a car or bus; three were recommended with an experienced guide, and the more adventurous Judean Desert itinerary called for four-wheel-drive vehicles.[6]

The Jerusalem–Bethlehem connection is especially important during Christmas and Easter.[30] The historic road carries the Latin Patriarch’s Christmas procession from Jerusalem to the Church of the Nativity.[30] Other organized itineraries have combined Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho in short excursions, including winter visits by Europeans traveling from Sharm el-Sheikh.[19] Before the pandemic, lower hotel prices and proximity to Christian holy places attracted groups from Eastern Europe and Africa to Bethlehem.[8] One industry estimate placed Bethlehem accommodation at 20 percent of hotel nights used by visitors to Israel, with groups transferring between Palestinian and Israeli buses and guides near the Gilo checkpoint.[8]

Short visits have been a persistent business concern.[20][21] Many coach groups visited the Church of the Nativity and left within hours, prompting efforts by Mayor Vera Baboun to encourage longer stays and exploration of the Old City.[21] In 2019, Bethlehem had approximately 50 hotels, but fewer than one-third of its reported three million annual visitors stayed overnight.[11] Christmas could fill hotels even when occupancy remained difficult during the rest of the year.[11]

Cultural and culinary initiatives sought to retain visitors longer.[3] An eighteenth-century guesthouse restored by the municipality with Italian assistance was operated by chef Fadi Kattan, whose restaurant used local ingredients in Palestinian cuisine.[3] Food tours introduced visitors to market farmers, butchers, and bakers, while another program offered cooking classes with a Palestinian grandmother.[3] Kattan reported that the guesthouse’s average stay had grown from one night at its 2014 opening to three and a half nights, with steady low-season occupancy.[3]

Other offerings included restored historic guesthouses, music performances, street art, local history, and tours involving nearby Palestinian art and a refugee camp.[11] The Banksy-designed Walled-Off Hotel opened in 2017 with a museum about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; its manager estimated 250,000 visitors during its first two years.[11] Bethlehem also promoted excursions to Battir and a former palace of King Herod.[11]

Ramallah pursued a different market through museums, religious diversity, nightlife, and luxury hotels priced below comparable properties in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.[7] Despite three recently opened five-star hotels, average occupancy in the broader middle West Bank area was approximately 27 percent in the years preceding a 2017 account, and hotel guests declined from 82,055 in 2008 to 67,897 in 2016.[7] Another 2017 report listed nightly luxury-hotel prices of NIS 440–1,180 and apartment accommodation in Ramallah or Jericho starting around NIS 70.[31] It recorded comparison-site ratings of 9.6 for Ramallah’s 170-room Mövenpick, 9.0 for the Palestine Plaza, and 8.9 for Bethlehem’s 250-room Jacir Intercontinental.[31]

Plans for leisure development also extended to Jericho and Gaza.[4][5] In 2014, PADICO’s proposed Jericho Gate project covered 3,000 dunams and envisioned hotels, a country club, and housing; these were development plans rather than confirmation of completion.[5] The 1994 agreement permitted Palestinian operation of specified Mawasi beach sections totaling five kilometers together with the Rafah and Khan Yunis wharves.[4] Authorized uses included recreation, sport, boat hire, food establishments, wharf expansion, and fishermen’s facilities, alongside business licensing, taxation, public-health regulation, and tourism management.[4] Gaza, however, was effectively closed to traditional tourism following the 2007 Hamas takeover.[25]

Tourism contributed less than three percent of Palestinian GDP and approximately two percent of employment in estimates based on a 2012 statistical survey.[1] Its local importance could be far greater: a 2024 account placed tourism at 70 percent of Bethlehem’s annual income.[10] A 2014 description identified pilgrims as 90 percent of Bethlehem’s visitors and overnight guests and recorded a local unemployment rate of 26 percent.[5] Disruptions therefore affected not only accommodation businesses but also extensive networks of small producers and service workers.[9][10]

Traditional Bethlehem industries include religious articles, especially mother-of-pearl work, and olive-wood carving.[2] Broader tourism-development discussions identified glassware, textiles, pottery, and Nablus soap as products capable of increasing local income.[15] Training priorities included consumer preferences, production methods, and marketing to visitors around Jerusalem and Bethlehem.[15] Hospitality training needs encompassed hotel and restaurant workers, managers, reservation clerks, and foreign-language skills, with Palestinian training in 1994 relying primarily on a Bethlehem University program.[15]

Investment policy increasingly recognized tourism as an eligible development sector.[24][25] A 2014 decree amending the investment-promotion law extended tax incentives to tourism businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, exporters, and agriculture, while shifting emphasis toward human capital rather than fixed assets.[25] Hotel expansion accompanied recovery, although industry representatives in 2019 described shortages of accommodation as limiting further growth.[32] Bethlehem’s hotel association also reported that hotel numbers had increased fivefold over 20 years while water and electricity infrastructure lagged.[11]

Heritage resources extend beyond the best-known pilgrimage destinations.[1] The Palestinian Authority submitted 20 sites for consideration as World Cultural Heritage locations, and Bethlehem received UNESCO recognition in 2012.[1] Excluding Jerusalem, approximately 3,110 archaeological sites in Area C were registered by the Palestinian tourism and antiquities ministry, including 443 in the Seam Zone and 247 within settlement municipal areas.[1] Significant locations included Sabastiya, Qumran, and Herodion, with the latter two managed at the time by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority.[1]

Israeli-managed sites recorded substantial visitation in 2011: Qumran received 373,826 visitors, Ein Fashkha 101,693, Herodion 86,375, Ein Fara 133,123, and the Good Samaritan 39,131.[1] Estimated entry-fee revenues were respectively $2.05 million, $0.56 million, $0.47 million, $0.73 million, and $0.16 million, with the calculations potentially understating receipts.[1] These figures describe individual sites rather than unique visitors to Palestinian areas.[1]

The Dead Sea has also featured in economic-development scenarios.[1] Assuming that at least six kilometers of an approximately 40-kilometer Palestinian coast could accommodate resorts, a 2014 scenario estimated capacity for about 4,000 rooms, annual value added of roughly $126 million, and approximately 2,900 direct jobs.[1] The estimated value added equaled about one percent of 2011 Palestinian GDP, but represented potential development rather than realized earnings or employment.[1] Its achievement depended on security, movement, investment, promotion, and branding.[1]

Tourism has also become a subject of research into political participation and reconciliation.[33][34] A 2014 study examined how Bil’in developed from a local dispute into an international tourism destination associated with resistance, analyzing visitor participation and the staging of experiences described as authentic.[33] A 2023 study examined eight organizations in Israel and the West Bank offering reconciliation-themed travel, identifying recognition of multiple narratives, inclusiveness of victimhood, and a commitment to transformative ontology as central themes.[34]

Access, security screening, professional licensing, and control of itineraries have generated recurring disagreements.[15][35] In the 2008 negotiations, both sides supported joint marketing, tourism packages, and fairs, but Israel sought to protect its industry and retain Israeli-licensed guides for tours inside Israel, while Palestinian negotiators sought greater opportunities for Palestinian guides and drivers and additional infrastructure.[35] Movement and crossing questions were discussed by the Tourism Committee but were not taken up by the Border Crossings Committee.[35]

Development disputes have focused especially on Area C, the Dead Sea, and links with Jerusalem.[1][30] By the 2014 study, Palestinian public and private investors had not obtained permits for Dead Sea tourism construction, while the relevant joint committee was described as meeting irregularly since 2000.[1] A 2006 analysis described severe distress among East Jerusalem hotels and potential harm from separation from Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Abu Dis–Al-Azariya; its underlying survey covered 1,208 Palestinian families, not tourists.[30] Bethlehem’s barrier and loss of land access were also linked to constrained expansion, while prolonged tourism hardship disproportionately affected Christian businesses and landowners and contributed to emigration pressures.[2]

Competing accounts concern why visitors leave Bethlehem quickly and how guide permissions affect business.[11][21] A 2013 account reported approximately 150 Israeli guides authorized in Bethlehem against 42 Palestinian guides permitted in Israel and East Jerusalem; Israeli officials rejected allegations of unfair treatment.[21] Palestinian officials described political tensions and the barrier as obstacles in 2014, while Israeli officials said they sought to facilitate travel.[36] Estimates of $460 million in annual revenue and a possible $1.8 billion under full Palestinian control were an individual tourism expert’s projections, not independently established outcomes.[36]

Reported statistics also use different geographical scopes and measures.[1][20] Estimates ranging from less than three percent of GDP to five, 13, or 15 percent cannot be treated as equivalent without comparable methods, and a 2015 report supplied unreconciled visitor figures below 1.5 million and at 2.2 million.[1][37] Historical figures likewise should not substitute for travel guidance: an August 26, 2026 U.S. advisory specified restrictions for government employees and their families, limited exceptions for Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, and Jericho, and warnings about checkpoint delays and changing closures.[38]