LONDON: Palestine’s hotel room count is set to double by the end of the decade.
Elias Al-Arjah, who is chairman of the Arab Hotel Association and the owner of The Bethlehem Hotel, predicts that the number of hotel rooms in the country will rise from 6,000 to 10,000 by 2020.
Speaking on the sidelines of London’s World Travel Market, Al-Arjah told Arab News: “In Bethlehem in 1994, before the peace process, we had 800 rooms, now we have 4,000 rooms. We are growing faster than our neighbors, such as Tel Aviv and Amman.”
The Arab Hotel Association (AHA) — which represents 120 hotels throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem — is tasked with promoting tourism to the region through events and marketing.
The AHA chairman said: “Most Palestinian tourism is religious, but there is about five percent of tourism which is cultural and historical.” Al-Arjah said that Palestine and Israel are “working together” to promote Jerusalem as a tourist site.
“When the tourists come, they come to see more than East Jerusalem, they want to see all of the holy sites. Business-wise, we are working together with Israel, even if there is very bad political conflict,” Al-Arjah said.
“Our area has been quiet and there has been no problems in the last three or four years — it has been a good situation. Thank God there is no conflict, so there are more tourists,” he said.
According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Palestine is the world’s fastest growing tourism destination. The country saw a 57.8 percent increase in international arrivals in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of 2016.
Earlier this year political artist Banksy — whose artworks sell for millions of dollars — opened his “Walled Off” hotel in Bethlehem. The hotel, which the artist described as having “the worst view of any hotel in the world,” exists both as a hotel and a museum space that explains the turbulent history of the region. Rooms start at $60 and go up to $965 for the presidential suite.
Palestine hotel room count ‘to double’
Palestine hotel room count ‘to double’
Taiba Investments profit rises 9% on stronger pilgrim-driven revenue
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Taiba Investments Co. reported a 9.32 percent rise in annual profit to SR364.8 million ($97.20 million) as higher pilgrim flows lifted revenue to SR1.36 billion, a filing on Tadawul showed.
Net profit attributable to shareholders increased from SR333.7 million a year earlier, with earnings per share climbing to SR1.40 from SR1.28. Revenue rose 3.7 percent to SR1.36 billion in the year ended Dec. 31, compared with SR1.32 billion in 2024.
Taiba, a hospitality and real estate developer backed by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, focuses on hotel and property assets primarily in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
In a Tadawul filing, the company stated: “This growth was primarily driven by improved performance across the company’s segments in Makkah and Madinah, supported by higher numbers of visitors and Umrah pilgrims, the commencement of operations of new facilities, and increased revenues from the real estate segment.”
Taiba Investments reported that the SR31.1 million rise in net profit was mainly attributable to improved operating performance, the reversal of a litigation provision previously recognized in 2023 following the termination of a contractual relationship with one of the operators after a settlement between the parties, and capital gains realized from the expropriation of one of its properties in Madinah.
Total comprehensive income attributable to shareholders declined 55.53 percent to SR198.2 million from SR445.7 million.
Other comprehensive income recorded a loss of SR166.6 million, compared with a gain of SR111.9 million in the previous year, primarily due to a decline in the fair value of financial derivatives used for hedging and a decrease in the market value of certain investments measured at fair value through other comprehensive income.
Shareholders’ equity increased marginally by 0.04 percent to SR6.85 billion. Taiba's share price saw a 3.03 percent increase to SR34 by 10:20 am Saudi time.
