IN STEREO

In the valley, most of the tourism relies on the trail. Hikers come through Beit Jala to Battir. Some of them start from Battir and come back to Beit Jala. Those who know, people who like to do hiking, they come and do it. It’s based on initiatives by some locals, some institutions who are interested in tourism. But there’s no strategy to motivate or promote tourism for this area. So far, the estimated number of visitors who pass through this trail is about 500 per week. We’ll try to encourage people to do something more: to take more initiatives to increase the number of visitors, but also to make different kinds of activities to benefit from the nature.

[This is] so the visitor doesn’t only come and walk the trail and go back. We will work on having a more systematic, organised programme that will include the communities themselves. Maybe the visitors come [and] do the hike, but also stay the whole day in Battir, or Beit Jala, or Al-Walaja, when they have other things to do. Like visiting a museum, or having lunch – having some traditional or organic food, something like that. [We are] trying to link the different components: of agriculture [and] natural, organic food with a museum, with nature, with economic benefit. Getting them all together, in a more organised way, this is our objective. – Rami