RAMALLAH, April 27, 2010 (WAFA)- “The number of hotels operating in the Palestinian Territory as of December 2009 was 100 hotels with 4,552 rooms and 9,815 beds,” the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics stated Tuesday in the main findings of the Hotels Survey for the year 2009.

PCBS added: Of these hotels, there were 34 hotels in the Jerusalem governorate with a total of 1,483 rooms and 3,263 beds. 

The results showed that the total number of workers in the Palestinian hotels during 2009 were 1,514 employee of which 15% were female workers.

During the year 2009, the total number of guests in hotels in the Palestinian Territory reached about 453 thousands persons; among them, 35% were from European Union countries and 11.0% were from U.S.A & Canada. The total number of guest nights was about one million nights of which 11% were for Palestinian guests, 12% were from U.S.A & Canada, and 39% were for guests from European Union countries.

Most of those guests (48%) stayed in Jerusalem hotels, 20% were in hotels in Middle of the West Bank, 29% in South of the West Bank and 2% in North of the West Bank. The percentage of guests in Gaza Strip hotels was less than 1%.

Since September 2000, there has been a dramatic drop in the main indicators of hotel    activity due to the Israeli measures against Palestinians.  In comparison with the year 2000, the number of guests reached 355,711 persons during 2009; while declined in 2001 and 2002 to reach 60,208 and 51,357 respectively, which was the lowest number of guests since September 2000.

Hotel activity increased after 2002, which was the lowest point for all of the hotel indicators due to a series of violent Israeli measures at that time.  The number of guests had increased in the years after 2002, reaching 62,812 during 2003; 100,184 during 2004; 131,908 during 2005; 151,801 in 2006; 316,866 in 2007; 446,133 in 2008, and finally reaching 452,625 in 2009. 

The increase in the number of guests was accompanied by an improvement in every aspect concerning hotel indicators, mainly the number of nights and the rate of occupancy of rooms and beds.  The percentage of room occupancy during 2000 was 32%; it decreased in 2002 to 10% of hotel rooms, and rose to 25% in 2007, and to 32.5% during the year 2009.

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