After 16 very long months of uncertainty and cancelled flights, international carriers are landing back at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. We spoke to four local tour guides, eager to get back to work and welcome visitors.
As Nabil Razzouk, a local Christian tour guide from Jerusalem who has been hosting and guiding groups since 2010, puts it, ‘All these sites, all these places, they miss the people’.
2023 started off as a promising year, but everything ground to a halt on October 7, with the attack on Israel that ignited the entire region and led many international carriers to cancel their flights.
With no incoming flights, one of the sectors most affected was tourism. The resumption of flights marks the first step in reviving a sector that once welcomed 4.55 million visitors in the record year of 2019, contributing nearly 6% to Israel’s GDP. Tourism collapsed during COVID, falling by 82%, to slowly recover in 2022–2023, and came to a near halt again after October 7, 2023. Fewer than a million tourists visited the country in 2024.
While hotels somehow managed to stay afloat thanks to government support and by hosting displaced locals from the north and south, tour guides were less fortunate, and often the hardest hit.
‘Almost every guide is unemployed, waiting for peace to come so people can return,’ says Joseph Abdallah, a Christian tour guide based in Nazareth.
Today, they are delighted at the prospect of renewed activity.
Regula Alon, a licensed tour guide and peace activist, recalls how she was supposed to welcome ‘a Swiss group arriving on October 8th – obviously cancelled.’ She only just had her first tourists since October 2023, ‘two elderly ladies. We went hiking in the Negev. It was freezing, but it was wonderful.’
Nabil describes a Nativity Church longing for the return of pilgrims: ‘Bethlehem’s Nativity Church misses the crowds, the lines, the groups waiting their turn to enter through the small door. Now, it’s quiet. Too quiet.’
Biblical tourism and connections
Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, places that have always attracted visitors, remain central to what is, in many ways, the ultimate tourist guide to the region: the Bible.
Christian tourists account for about half the total number of visitors to Israel. Of these, roughly half come on religious pilgrimages. Both Tal Leder, a licensed tour guide and journalist, and Nabil say they frequently rely on the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) to help visitors connect with the land beneath their feet.
‘Lots of people don’t understand the roots of the people of Israel, where the story began,’ says Tal, who grew up in Frankfurt and specialises in Middle Eastern history. ‘I read to them directly from the Bible on site, and suddenly they realise this is where it happened.’ He adds that similarly, ‘Many Christian tourists celebrate Christmas but don’t realise they are literally standing where the stories took place.’
‘For Christian groups, the pilgrimage is the fifth gospel,’ Nabil explains. ‘They’ve read the Bible, heard the sermons, but being here completes the story.’
An often-overlooked gem, according to Tal, is Shiloh the site of the Tabernacle before the Temple. ‘It’s also where the land was divided among the 12 tribes, and where Hannah prayed for a son, a story that resonates with both Jews and Christians.’
Joseph, who guides many Christian groups, reminds us that there are approximately 135,000 Arab Christians in Israel today. ‘The groups I guide come to visit the holy sites, to walk the way Jesus stepped 2000 years ago,’ he says.
Regula also highlights the Jesus Trail, which starts in Nazareth and follows the landscapes and villages of the Galilee down to Capernaum.
A city that drives some mad
However, Jerusalem is not only home to religious intensity but also to a unique psychological phenomenon, the Jerusalem Syndrome, a religious psychosis triggered by the city, where people become convinced they are biblical figures or have a divine mission to fulfil.
Three guides mention encountering James, a well-known character who suffers from the syndrome and is often seen in white robes, barefoot, pacing near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Layers of history beyond religion
But not everyone is spiritually moved.
Joseph often jokes with visitors welcoming them ‘to the Holy Land, where the land is holy, but the people are not.’
For visitors more interested in History and less Bible, Regula recommends Akko, ‘a port city, the gateway to northern Israel, with its Crusader city beneath the Arab Old City. It tells the story of the whole Levant, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, layers upon layers.’
Joseph offers another hidden gem in Nazareth, where for a small fee, people can visit ‘private homes with beautifully painted ceilings from the 19th century, reminders of wealthy families who once lived here. It’s a part of the town’s story most visitors never see.’
Nature’s open invitation
For those wary of crowded cities and seeking open space, Regula encourages visitors to embrace nature. ‘Go to nature!’ she says. ‘From the snow on the Hermon to the desert in the Negev – that’s what I always recommend.’
Her words echo Tal’s, who says ‘Israel is the size of Hessen, where I grew up, but in this tiny space, you have forests in the north, modern cities on the coast, deserts in the south, and three seas,’ adding, ‘and you can surf here – people forget that!’
Both highlight the Shvil Israel, a 1,000-kilometre trail from the Lebanese border to Eilat, as an unforgettable walking or cycling adventure.
Nabil likes to mix things up, and start in ‘Jerusalem first, then the Dead Sea and Masada, then Galilee and the Jordan River, and finish on the Mediterranean coast in Jaffa or Tel Aviv.’
Food, ‘a feast of migrations’
All four guides agree: Israel’s food is unmatched in its diversity.
Regula celebrates the culinary mix of ‘local falafel and hummus, gefilte fish from Poland, couscous from Morocco, Persian spices, a true feast of migrations’.
Nabil insists ‘you can’t skip hummus and falafel. It’s the basics.’ He enjoys taking tourists to places where he ate as a child in Jerusalem.
Joseph recommends Arab cuisine for something authentic. ‘Stuffed vine leaves, mujadara, or food prepared to you by the Druzes.’
For dessert, he’s unequivocal, ‘Nazareth has the best knafeh. No contest.’
In this land where Jesus famously turned water into wine, Tal encourages visitors to explore Israel’s wineries, many of which produce world-class wines.
As flights resume, so does cautious optimism.
Let us hope tourism can play its part, because, as the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (WCTE) reminds us: ‘Tourism should always serve as a reminder of the importance of dialogue, peace, tolerance, and beneficial interactions between people and countries.’
‘I hope the war will stop. I hope peace will overcome everywhere,’ says Joseph Abdallah.
Despite their different backgrounds, Jewish, Arab, Christian, Swiss-born, all four guides share a deep love for this land and an eagerness to welcome visitors back, a passion that came through in every word they shared.
As Tal says, ‘this land has over 5,000 years of history, and it’s still changing every day. There’s always something new to discover.’
