RAMALLAH, October 26, 2009 (WAFA)- Palestinian Central Bureau of statistics (PCBS) indicated Monday that 19.6% of the West Bank hotel guests are residents and 80.4% of them are non residents. 

The non resident hotel guests of the West Bank in 2009 were distributed by region as follows: 44.6% in Jerusalem, 14.3% in the Middle of West Bank, 35.7% in the South of West Bank, and 5.4% in the North of West Bank.

PCBS Iisued a report about the results of  a survey of hotel guests in the West Bank during 2009, which indicate that the hotel guests survey implemented in PCBS for the first time during the period from 01/04/2009 to 09/07/2009, and hotel guests survey comes as supplementary indicators of demand for the most operating hotels, the survey carried out by the continuous and permanent since 1996 and all the hotel facilities Operating in the West Bank, in order to provide the necessary data to draw appropriate policies to promote the reality of tourism and providing data to establish a tourism satellite account.

The survey aims to provide the data needed to build and update the database, which contains statistical indicators on the tourism sector on the subject of hotels guests as part of the components of demand for tourism, in particular, the survey aims to provide statistical data on the characteristics of hotels guests, and the characteristics of the visit, and data on expenditure by items during the visit, spending methodologies as the World Tourism Organization.

During the year 2009, the results of the survey show that the average length of stay of the hotel guest in the West Bank (at and out of the hotels) was 5.6 nights, and the average length of stay of the guest in the West Bank hotels was 4.4 nights.

The main purpose of hotel guests conducting their visit was for recreation (33.2%), for pilgrimage (29.8%), official tasks or meetings (17.3%), visiting friends (7.9%), or for other purposes was (11.8%).

The average expenditure during the hotel guest visit to the West Bank was $1,530 The  expenses for the largest share was for hotel and accommodations expenditure ($ 590), $ 365 for shopping, US$ 316  for food and drink, $ 176 for transportation and telecommunications,  and  US$ 81 for other  expenditures.

Data collection and data processing of this activity was funded by the European Union.