02/01/2024
Hello to all my friends, valued customers, family and Facebook followers.
Due the Swords of Iron war currently going on with the Hamas and Hizballah terrorist organisations, tourism has gone down drastically, as you can imagine. There are still groups and individuals coming, as I saw yesterday and Sunday at Ben Gurion airport. People are coming to visit family and friends, for joyous occasions, and to volunteer. There are groups coming on organised missions, to see the damaged communities from near Gaza, to some of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis in hotels, hostel and field schools far from Gaza and the Lebanese border. I saw up close Sunday the wonderful work the Jerusalem Ramada Hotel was doing with these evacuees. They built them a laundromat, and every hallis being used as makeshift kindergartens and day care centres. Their shul has multiple minyanim and people learning Torah all day long.
I myself have distributed needed supplies, medicine and food to bases throughout the country. Most of my fellow tour guides and I have almost no work, save for an occasional mission, if one is fortunate to lead one. Some do get a day or two from people who came to visit, volunteer, or attend a simcha. Please keep me and my colleagues in mind if you do come to visit. While some tourist sites are closed because of their location, many are open. Many restaurants are open as usual, and yes, it is possible to get hotel rooms, even though many have evacuees.