92% of employees in the hotel industry in Israel went on unpaid leave

Following the closure announced during the Tishrei holidays, 92% of employees in the hotel industry in Israel went on unpaid leave, according to data from the Hotels Association.
Out of 41,000 hotel workers, 20,000 have remained in the IDF since the first closure. During the last week, before Rosh Hashanah, another 18,000 workers were released. In other words, 38,000 hotel workers are on unpaid leave.
Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, hotels in Israel have suffered severe damage. During the last March, due to the restrictions, the number of visitors to Israel dropped to almost zero and the hotels began to close. At the height of the crisis, 96% of hotels in Israel were closed (some of the 4% that remained open were converted by the Ministry of Defense to populate corona patients in isolation).
Since May, the hotels began to open gradually, and in the summer months (July-August) they managed to recover significantly, especially in popular domestic tourist areas such as Eilat, the Dead Sea, the Galilee, the Golan Heights and the Negev - where it was almost impossible to find a room until September. Prices also jumped accordingly. In contrast, other places had more difficulty and suffered from very low occupancy, mainly urban hotels in the center of the country: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Netanya.
The holiday season is considered a good time for hotels in Israel. Therefore, with the announcement of the closure, the association estimated the expected loss of income for hotels on Tishrei holidays alone at NIS 800 million.
A letter sent by the president of the Hotel Association, Amir Haik, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reads: "The hotel industry suffered a severe and painful blow during the Corona period, tens of thousands of workers were sent to the IDF or fired, and since returning to routine only 63% of hotels have reopened. Most of them are still bleeding and having difficulty recovering. "And here, but we started licking the wounds and after meeting the strict purple mark rules in the summer months (which required a lot of investment from us), there is once again an existential danger hovering over the industry and the entire hotel industry."