In the year 2000 the expected number of visitors may well reach 3.5 million, provided the number of tourists visiting Israel that year will reach 5 million or so. Gamal Zippori, manager of the Saint Gabriel Hotel, is happy with the amount of overseas bookings. Nazareth is hoping for a large number of tourists. The town has accommodation for about 3,000 visitors. Nazareth is mostly known as a half-day stop.
Foreign tourists come to visit the Christian shrines and stay for half a day.
Israeli locals go there on weekends to shop and to eat. Nazareth did not have the hotel capacity to cope with large numbers of overnight tourists. Now things are changing. In 1998 there were about 500 hotels rooms, mostly in family hotels. This Christmas there were 1,250 rooms.