Eilat needs a different story

Eilat
Eilat

The time has come to rebuild Eilat as a center of urban technology and ecological innovation, and to let the tourism follow.

Eilat aspires to be the Red Sea Riviera. The municipal master plan, which is currently under review for approval by the national committee, and is the just the second master plan since Eilat was declared a city, proposes an increase in the number of residents from 63,000 to 100,000, and later to 150,000. The intention is to do this by expanding existing neighborhoods, building new neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, and tripling the number of hotel rooms in the city from the 12,000 that exist today. In addition, the plan is to increase the number of tourist attractions, and to build a massive campus, which will expand the city center, on the site where the airport currently stands. Eilat will be rebranded as a “city of tourism and leisure, of international sport, of trade fairs and conventions, and of higher education.” This branding (underway since 2011) carries with it economic risks for the city and its inhabitants.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and Israel Hotel Association (IHA) data, in July 2014, there was a 26% drop in the number visitors, compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. This drop may be attributed to Operation Protective Edge, but there was also a sharp drop of 51% in November in the number of tourist overnights compared with the previous year, and there was a sharp drop in January as well, by 21% compared with the corresponding month of the previous year, presumably due to the financial crisis in Russia, which cut the flow of tourists from there to the city of eternal sunshine.

Foreign tourism is impacted by currency fluctuations and the security situation, but even internal tourism, which accounts for a significant and steady proportion of the city’s hotel occupancy, is in decline.

Today, more than 55% of Eilat’s residents earn their livings from tourism. Though the master plan does offer a variety of other types employment, it still leaves tourism at a similar rate, of 50%, effectively forcing half of the city’s residents to remain in a perpetual state of employment uncertainty.

Despite the fact that the numbers speak for themselves, the city's mayors have refused, each in turn, to let go of the dream, and each tried in his own way to improve the project by announcing new ventures.

The success of the tourism, festivals, and international conferences planned for the city depends upon the construction of a new airport, a train line, and, ideally, regional peace as well. Conferences require a convention center, and the sports vision requires the construction of vast sports facilities. All the huge ventures have already had ribbon-cutting ceremonies, launches, and promotions by various representatives of the different governments, but many of the promises remained on paper, due to lack of budget, lack of public interest, or because the projects made no economic sense. Even projects that are much more modest in terms of construction also require grants and government subsidies, such as the construction of academic campuses in the city, which, through hefty grants, wooed students and lecturers, and like the large ventures, and they too feel the effects of the tremendous volatility of government budgets.

The vision and the master plan look great in the models and simulations in the corridors of the municipality, but without occupational diversity, and because of the low salaries stemming from the lack of it, the city’s residents are sentenced to lives of hard work and daily uncertainty. Here, too, Eilat’s numbers speak for themselves: the city’s socioeconomic ranking is 5, it has 2,500 welfare cases, 18% single-parent households, an average salary 25% lower than the national average, and 30% of its businesses are in danger of closure, all according to official statistics found on the municipality’s website.

The city must vary its employment options

Eilat’s problem is not purely one of planning. It’s not just the separation between the residential areas (uphill) and the tourist and commercial areas (below at the seafront), and not just the airport, which separates between the eastern and western parts of the city. It’s also not the dearth of pleasant open areas, neighborhood commercial areas, or local identity. If there is a flaw in the planners' work, it is that they played along with the vision, and made no attempt to challenge it.

The change needs to begin with understanding the need of the city’s permanent residents, and an examination of what would really cause others to stay there. What would really answer their needs, and the needs of their children, and would make them want to build futures in the city, and not as minimum-wage hotel employees? According to CBS data, almost 70% percent of the city’s residents have lived there for less than ten years. In other words, the stable local population is just 30% of the total. This appears to be the primary challenge.

The narrative must change

Here is what needs to be done: The first step is to change the city’s story. This isn't to deny the tourism potential quite the opposite. Imagine yourself in Rome, London, or Paris - after a day or two of sightseeing, don’t you want to see how the locals “really” live?

The second step is to identify opportunities that will provide a planning and economic basis for change. This is done by dramatically increasing the availability of the services that the residents need and want, which will also dramatically improve the employment options in the city, so that the residents will not rely solely upon tourism and ancillary services to earn a living.

The vacating of the airport is just such a planning opportunity. According to the existing plan, the vacated area will serve a variety of uses a little hotel accommodation, a little commerce, a little employment, and some open areas. I believe that this is exactly the way to accomplish nothing.

Eilat does not really need more spaces for hotels, nor does it need commercial spaces (I cannot think of any other beach in the world with such a wonderful view that is blocked by a mall sitting right on the waterfront). It needs more, and different, sources of employment. Not hotels, not tourism, and not a port. It needs something that will keep Eilat residents living there. This could be provided by knowledge-intensive industry that combines urban needs and energy efficiency.

The city already claims to be a solar city, but at the moment that is only because it is in the process of installing solar energy, and because it hosts the annual Eilat-Eilot Green Energy Conference. Eilat also announced that it wants to become a “smart city.” A combination of technology development sites, test sites, and demo centers could serve as a knowledge-intensive income source, a magnet for researchers and developers from Israel and around the world, and also an additional tourist attraction, in addition to drastically reducing the city’s energy costs. The Eilot region already does this, and now the city needs to implement this on a much larger scale. Berlin is carrying out a similar process on the site of its Tegel Airport, which is in the process of being vacated. An urban technology development site will replace the runways, and will include industry, academic institutions, and a test site, working side by side. Berlin is currently experimenting with other areas in the city, while waiting (like Eilat) for the airport to be finally vacated, but the commercial and research areas are already being sold, and Berlin’s new story is one of history alongside innovation.

Choosing this sort of process would, of course, require adapting the plans. Connecting the city and the beachfront, and the eastern part of the city with the western part of the city, should not be based on green lines painted on the map, or a commercial strip which it is doubtful that the city can support. This is something to be achieved by providing economic content that will increase the number of permanent residents in the city, will guarantee new strong and stable income sources. That will make it possible to carry out tourism and other projects without begging for government handouts. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of sunshine.

Rafi Rich is an architect and urban planner, former Ministry of Interior senior director of building, and current CEO of SUiTS (Smarter Urban IT and Strategies) Urban Planning and Development

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 6, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

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