The decline of israel’s mediterranean resorts: Life cycle change  versus national tourism master planning

In spite of the general increase in both incoming and domestictourism in Israel during the last third of the twentieth century, there has been stagnation and decline in tourism to the country’sMediterranean seaside resorts. At first glance, this situation seemsto conform to Butler’s life cycle model. However, closeranalysis reveals that Israel’s tourism policy, reflectedin a sequence of national master plans, is largely responsible forthis trend. This paper claims that one of the results of the discrepancybetween stagnating tourist activity in the Mediterranean resortsand the master plans has been the intensive development of marinasby the private ­sector, with the active support and encouragementof municipalities, aimed at realizing real-estate potential whilebypassing existing planning restrictions on non-tourist developmentalong the shoreline.