The Decline of Israel’s Mediterranean Resorts: Life Cycle Change  Versus National Tourism Master Planning

Abstract

In spite of the general increase in both incoming and domestic tourism in Israel during the last third of the twentieth century, there has been stagnation and decline in tourism to the country’s Mediterranean seaside resorts. At first glance, this situation seems to conform to Butler’s life cycle model. However, closer analysis reveals that Israel’s tourism policy, reflected in a sequence of national master plans, is largely responsible for this trend. This paper claims that one of the results of the discrepancy between stagnating tourist activity in the Mediterranean resorts and the master plans has been the intensive development of marinas by the private ­sector, with the active support and encouragement of municipalities, aimed at realizing real-estate potential while bypassing existing planning restrictions on non-tourist development along the shoreline.

Keywords:

• Life cycle model
• Israeli seaside resorts
• national tourism planning