RAMALLAH, September 26, 2011 (WAFA) – The number of Palestinian households who conducted trips abroad decreased in 2010, registering only 11% compared to 16% in 2009, Monday said a report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
The report, published on the occasion of World Tourism Day, said the average expenditure by Palestinian households on outbound trips was $1,022, of which $269 was spent on shopping and $253 on transportation and communications.
About 38% of households in the Palestinian Territory (one member at least) conducted a domestic trip in 2010, of which 34% were by West Bank households and 45% by Gaza Strip households, said PCBS.
It added that the average expenditure of households on a domestic trip was $51: $66 by West Bank households and $29 by Gaza Strip households.
The report registered an increase in inbound visitors in 2010, when the number of inbound and domestic visitors rose to 4.9 million; 2.2 million tourists to the West Bank and 2.7 million domestic visitors, significantly higher than the 2.6 million in 2009.
In terms of destination, tourism centered on visits to Bethlehem governorate, with 1.1 million visitors, and the Jericho and Jordan Valley governorate with 0.8 million visitors, said PCBS.
It added that the governorates of Nablus and Jenin were those most visited by domestic tourists at 21% and 19% respectively, while Jericho, the Jordan Valley and Tulkarm each received 15% of visitors, Qalqilya received 14%, and the remaining governorates, 16%. It should be noted that these figures do not include the Jerusalem governorate.
PCBS said that in the first half of 2011, there were 264,000 hotel guests, of whom 12% were Palestinian and 34% were from European Union countries, the number of guests falling slightly by 0.2% compared to the first half of 2010.
Around 42% of the guests stayed in Jerusalem hotels, and 40% stayed in the south of the West Bank, 14% in its center and 3% in its north. Only 1% of guests stayed in Gaza Strip hotels, said the report.
It added that there were 98 hotels in the Palestinian Territory in June, comprising 5,636 rooms with 11,672 beds. The average number of employees in these hotels was 2,165, of whom 378 were female.
R.Q./F.J.
