Ramallah June 28^th,2022: In a major step towards recovering Palestinian hotels and tourism businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Small and Medium Enterprise Assistance for Recovery and Transition (SMART) Project signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support Arab Hotels Association (AHA) with a domestic tourism promotional campaign. The SMART Project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by DAI Global. AHA represents 82 hotels in the West Bank, nearly all of whom are still struggling to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Representatives of SMART and AHA met in Ramallah on June the 28^th, 2022 to launch a three-month promotional campaign for the Palestinian tourism sector. The campaign promotes sites of interest, recreational activities, and cultural experiences in Palestinian towns and countryside to appeal to domestic consumers. The goal is to accelerate the recovery of the tourism sector and help Palestinian hotels recover from over two years of low occupancy and lost revenue.

The promotional campaign targets the domestic consumer market through multiple media platforms and communications channels with the slogan "Come and Visit Us". This message is set to the tune of a song, specially written for the campaign, to remind domestic tourists of the beauty of nearby tourist attractions. The music video was filmed on-location in several sites in West Bank and East Jerusalem. To reinforce this welcoming message, the social media component of the campaign will share the personal experiences of Palestinian influencers as they explore the same attractions and experiences.   

Mr. Said Abu Hijleh, SMART Chief of Party, and Mr. Elias Al-Arja, AHA Chairman of the Board, marked the launch of the campaign with a signing ceremony held in Ramallah. Mr. Abu Hijleh explained how USAID’s SMART Project supports the Palestinian private sector to recover from COVID-19 and how this promotional campaign contributes to related activities to recover the tourism sector. The campaign was informed by market research to determine requirements and target consumers to stimulate domestic tourism to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

Mr. Abu Hijleh explained that the promotional campaign runs parallel and complementary to SMART’s Hotel Recovery Program, which is providing cost-shared grants to around 30 hotels in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The program supports the capital expenditures necessary to restore hotels following an idle period, he added. The assistance included making improvements and renovations to hotel facilities and repairing and replacing vital equipment and systems. With this support, the hotels will be prepared to receive an influx of guests following a successful marketing campaign.

In turn, Mr. Elias Al-Arja, AHA Chairman of the Board, thanked the SMART Project for the collaborative marketing and capital support. AHA’s 82 members are keen to leverage this support to attract occupants to over six thousand hotel rooms across East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Mr. Al-Arja described the hotels’ economic hardship during the last two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hotels closed their doors because of the high operational costs and the lack of internal tourism during the pandemic travel bans, he explained, which led the hotel facilities and equipment to fall into disrepair. Together with the grants program, the marketing campaign launched this summer restores hope in the Palestinian tourism sector, which encompasses 40,000 jobs and provides livelihoods to hundreds of Palestinian families.