Tourism in Jerusalem is in surge despite political tension

 Tuesday, December 26, 2017 

Jesus’s birthplace is now booming with tourists despite political tension raising the announcing of capital city of Israel by United States.

Palestinian Tourism Ministry public relations director Jeries Qumsieh said that they have not witnessed any cancellation since the Trump announcement and are 100 percent booked for Christmas Eve.

The announcement of Donald Trump on Jerusalem outraged the Palestinians, who claim the sacred city’s eastern sector — home to sites holy to the three monotheistic religions — for a future capital. It sparked demonstrations across the broader Muslim world as well.

The United Nations General Assembly is to vote Thursday on a resolution critical of the step after the U.S. vetoed a similar one in the Security Council earlier this week.

The Palestinian Tourism Authority is anticipating a record 2.7 million tourists this year, a jump from 2.2 million in 2016.

Jeries Qumsieh attributed the increase to active marketing in Islamic countries like Indonesia and Turkey as well as cultural draws such as street artist Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which faces the 26-foot-high concrete security barrier, topped with barbed wire, that Israel built along and inside the West Bank.

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