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Feb. 17, 2006
Fresh winds blowing over Eilat
Despite haphazard city planning, the seaside town has been experiencing
a tourist boon.
EDGAR ASHER ISRANET
There is a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the hotel proprietors
in the Red Sea resort of Eilat following one of the best combined
Chanukah, Christmas and New Year seasons ever. Many direct winter
flights to Eilat ensured that all the hotels were full of visitors,
mainly trying to avoid the cold northern winter. Many European tour
operators have reintroduced Eilat to their current winter and spring
schedules following the end of the intifada, with most flights coming
direct to Eilat from their European destinations.
Even after the end-of-year holiday season, Eilat continues to attract
many tourists from Israel and abroad. While most of Israel, down
to the northern Negev, was unusually cold and on many days very
wet, the sun continued to shine across the Bay of Eilat.
Since the Olympic success of Gal Friedman, when he won a gold medal
for Israel in the windsurfing event, scores of windsurfers can be
seen every morning in a colorful armada as they glide across the
bay. This sport has become one of the fastest-growing water sports
in the country and there is perhaps no better place to pursue the
sport than Eilat.
This season has also seen the addition of two important attractions
in the city. A purpose-built IMAX cinema offers features for all
the family. Three-dimensional films with wraparound sound make it
seem possible to extend your hand in front of you to touch the screen.
In one such feature, on the Australian Great Barrier Reef, you feel
like one of the divers following rays and sharks as they glide over
the corals.
Another new attraction is the Kings City theme park. The theme park,
the first of its kind in Israel, opened a few months ago. Kings
City, which can be best described as a biblical theme park, is actually
contained in a huge 12,000 square metre building that looks like
a desert palace. The attraction uses the latest high-tech, multi-sensory
techniques, with many interactive experiences. In the final element
of the park, a small boat carrying 10 passengers sails through an
exhibit that tells the life of King Solomon. The final exit from
the park is via a 10-metre water slide.
There's also the Isrotel Theatre, which in a few short years has
established an international reputation for slick, colorful shows
with international illusionists, acrobats and dancers. Its latest
90-minute extravaganza features a Chinese acrobatic group whose
presentations seem to defy all the accepted rules of gravity. The
modern 700-seat theatre offers reductions in the cost of seats for
patrons staying at one of the many Isrotel hotels in the city.
Despite its obvious attractions, fine restaurants and some of the
country's finest hotels, the city seems not to be able to follow
an integrated pattern of development. Along most of the promenade,
stretching from the northern lagoon to the closed shopping precinct
about a kilometre to the south, there is an apparent uncontrolled
growth in booths selling souvenirs and bric-a-brac. Each booth competes
with the other in the pouring out of pop music and generally constricting
the promenade. There are few places to sit and relax and barely
a flower to be seen.
This uncontrolled development has been a feature of the city for
many years and, while the booths are an attraction to some of the
city's visitors, the hotel proprietors have been trying to encourage
the municipality to adopt a more practical attitude to the development
of Eilat that will incorporate more esthetic considerations and
appeal more to a larger number of visitors.
Eilat enjoys a very special climate and natural beauty thatneeds
careful and intelligent development. The natural attractions of
the city, such as its coral reef and its adjoining desert, have
to be preserved for future generations. The development and design
of the city's buildings and facilities have to be a balance between
nature and its history.
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