Marketing a Tourism Business in the Arava and Hevel Eilot: the Opposite Season to Eilat
A tourism business in the Arava works the opposite way from Eilat. According to the regional councils, the tourist season in the Arava runs from September to May, exactly the months when Eilat is quiet. So the Arava business concentrates its advertising in autumn and winter, speaks to people looking for the south in the cooler season, and leaves the summer for groundwork. Here you will find the full logic, with a seasonal calendar, search terms and a Google profile for a rural business.
Why the Arava season is the opposite of Eilat
The season in the Arava is reversed because the desert is pleasant exactly when the center of the country is cold, and scorching exactly when everyone is looking for the sea. The background page of the Central Arava Regional Council says the main tourist season in the Arava runs between September and May, and the official Arava tourism site adds that this is the period from Rosh Hashanah to Shavuot. Both pages note that in recent years the season has been stretching a little into the summer, mostly thanks to the swimming pools in the villages.
It is important to be precise here. The explicit statement of months comes from the Central Arava. On the Hevel Eilot sites we did not find such a statement, but the ground tells a similar story. In the southern Arava there is a well known field lodging site that is open from October to June only. A business that closes its doors in July and August is telling you exactly when its season is.
Eilat works the other way around. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), occupancy in Eilat hotels in 2024 stood at 87.9% in the summer quarter and only 66.4% in the winter quarter. We collected the rest of the city's numbers on the Eilat tourism numbers page. The meaning for the Arava business is simple. Your audience is traveling around the south exactly in the months when the big neighbor is quiet, and whoever knows how to catch them then gets a whole season with almost no competition.
How many businesses are in the Arava and what the numbers say
In the Central Arava the council publishes clear numbers. About 350 lodging units in about 60 lodging complexes, about 200 tourism business operators, and an average annual occupancy of about 30 to 35% that is concentrated in the holidays and on weekends. In Tzukim occupancy reaches about 80%. The council itself notes that there is no annual visitor data, because the lodging sites do not report consistently.
In Hevel Eilot the region's official tourism site lists about 17 lodging businesses. 3 hotels, 8 rural lodging complexes in the kibbutzim, and 6 field lodging sites and overnight campgrounds. Kibbutz Eilot alone runs 41 rural holiday units. The council has about 5,000 residents in ten kibbutzim and two community villages, and the main sources of income are agriculture and tourism.
The regional marketing is run by the councils themselves. In Hevel Eilot the council's economic company is responsible for marketing, advertising, public relations and sales promotion for the tourism players, and in the Central Arava the council's tourism arm runs the website and the events. This is important image marketing that puts the region on the map, but it sells the Arava, not your place. A digital strategy for the individual business is exactly the part left open.
The most important number here is occupancy. An annual average of 30 to 35% that is concentrated in holidays and weekends means that midweek, even inside the season, most units stand empty. That is not a product problem, it is a marketing problem. The guest who can come on a Tuesday in January exists. He simply has not heard of you, because nobody advertised to him.
Who the Arava guest is and what draws them
The Arava guest comes for the desert, not despite the desert. They are looking for quiet, trails, skies full of stars and a rural experience. This is a different audience from the Eilat guest who comes for the sea, the hotels and the attractions. A large part of them are families and couples who travel precisely in the cooler months, when the desert weather is comfortable.
And the region has plenty to sell this audience. In Hevel Eilot there are Timna Park, rural lodging in the kibbutzim, agricultural tourism with guided tours, a birding park and a flamingo lookout, the ancient agriculture site at Ein Evrona, the arts center at Neot Semadar, the Date Festival, and extreme activities like single tracks, climbing and jeep tours. The Central Arava has a full regional events calendar with the Arava March, Arava Yoga, a film festival, aviation events and summer events. The council has even branded the region as the friendly desert.
The marketing meaning is that your message is different from the Eilat message. Not a pool and a hotel but quiet, landscape and experience. Photos of sunrise over the mountains, a meal made from local produce, and open space. The guest who is looking for that recognizes an ad that speaks their language right away.
The desert search terms and how to catch people who searched for Eilat
The desert guest types different words from the Eilat guest. Lodging in the Arava, a desert cabin, field lodging in the Arava, agricultural tourism, things to do in the Arava, and searches around site names like Timna Park and Neot Semadar. Competition on these phrases is far lower than on the Eilat phrases, because almost no business in the region writes content. One good page on what to do in the Arava in winter can hold the phrase for years. How to build a page that Google ranks is explained on our SEO page.
And there is a second, smarter move. Even in winter people keep searching for a holiday in Eilat, because Eilat is the word everyone knows. Some of those searchers actually want quiet and nature, not a hotel strip. A paid campaign that shows this audience the desert alternative, a short drive from Eilat, meets them exactly at the moment of decision. That way you enjoy the demand of the strong phrase without competing with the hotels themselves. How to set up a campaign like that without burning the budget is described on our Google Ads management page and in the guide on Google advertising for an Eilat business.
Your Google profile when the business sits between kibbutzim
For a tiny rural business, the Google Business Profile is even more important than for a city business. In the city the customer walks past your sign. In the Arava they only find you on the map. A pin at the exact location is the difference between a guest who arrives relaxed and a guest who gets lost on the Arava road in the dark and starts the holiday annoyed. A well kept profile is also a direct channel that does not depend on the regional portal and does not take a commission.
We wrote the full principles of a profile for a tourism business in the Google Business Profile guide, and they work the same way north of the city. For a rural business you add a few points of emphasis.
- Pin at the real entrance to your place, not at the center of the kibbutz. Test the navigation yourself, once coming from the north and once from the south
- An accurate primary category. Cabin, hostel or campground. The category decides which searches you show up for
- Real photos of the units, the landscape and the meals. A desert guest buys atmosphere before they buy a bed
- A phone that gets answered and a WhatsApp link. A rural booking closes in a personal conversation, and whoever did not answer lost it
- A review from every guest. In a place with ten units, a few dozen good reviews change the whole picture against competitors with no reviews at all
- A seasonal post when something happens. Season opening, the bloom or a regional festival
The Arava calendar next to the Eilat calendar
The table below puts the two seasons side by side. The Arava side is based on the September to May season as the councils publish it, and the Eilat side on the CBS occupancy data we broke down month by month in the Eilat seasonality calendar. Holidays and events move between years, so the table is built by seasons and not by dates.
| Season | What happens in the Arava | What happens in Eilat | What the Arava business does |
|---|---|---|---|
| September to October | The season opens. Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot bring the first wave, and in Hevel Eilot the Date Festival | A short peak on Sukkot and then a drop | A season opening campaign weeks before Rosh Hashanah. A holiday page on the website and holiday hours on the profile |
| November to December | Pleasant autumn. Excellent weather for hiking and strong weekends | The weak season begins | A bigger budget. Advertising to winter travelers and a midweek offer, because the weekends fill up almost on their own |
| January to February | The heart of the season. The most comfortable weather for the trails and the desert experience | The city's quiet months | Peak advertising. Now even the audience searching for Eilat sees the desert alternative |
| March to April | The bloom, Passover and Chol HaMoed, and regional spring events | Passover fills the city again | An early Passover campaign and partnerships with Eilat businesses, because the holiday guest combines both |
| May | The end of the season around Shavuot. The heat begins | Demand climbs toward the summer | Sell Shavuot, collect reviews, and collect contact details with consent for next season |
| June to August | Heavy heat and limited activity. Some villages run summer events around the pools | The peak of the Eilat year | Groundwork. Website, content, photos and SEO fixes that will ripen by September |
Partnering with Eilat businesses instead of competing
The guest usually does not choose between the Arava and Eilat, they combine. A night in the desert and then a day in the city, or the other way around. The distance is short and the experiences complete each other. So the smart Arava business does not compete with Eilat, it leans on it.
For the Eilat business this is a great deal. You bring them an audience exactly in the months when the city is empty, and they give you exposure to their big summer audience in return. Two businesses with opposite seasons are a referral machine that works all year.
- A joint offer. A night in the Arava with a ticket to an attraction or a meal in the city at one price
- Mutual recommendations. A page on your site about a day in Eilat and a page on the partner's site about a night in the desert, with a link between them
- An orderly split of the seasons. In winter the Eilat partner sends you whoever is looking for quiet, and in summer you send them whoever wants the sea after all
- A returning guest package. Whoever stayed with you in winter gets a perk at the partner in summer, and the other way around
How to start working by the opposite season
Start from your own business data, not from the general calendar. Pull the bookings from the last two years by week and see when your guests actually came, when midweek stood empty, and where the inquiries came from. On that base you build a budget calendar that is the reverse of the Eilat one, a page or two of desert content, and an accurate Google profile. A business that starts preparing in the summer catches the season from its very first day.
If you want to go over this together, we would be glad to sit down with your numbers and build a plan for the coming season. We are based in Eilat, we work with tourism businesses in the south, and we see both of these seasons from the inside.
Sources and verification
Every fact in this article was checked against two independent sources before publication. Anything we could not verify twice was not written here as fact.
- The Central Arava Regional Council. Background and data page on tourism in the Arava, including the season, the number of lodging units and occupancy
- The official tourism site of the Central Arava. The about page on Arava tourism
- The official tourism site of Hevel Eilot, the southern Arava. Listings of the lodging businesses in the region
- Hevel Eilot Regional Council. The tourism page and the community data
- The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Eilat hotel occupancy data for 2024
This is exactly what we do at Google Ads management. If you want us to go over it together for your business, write to us.
Frequently asked questions
According to the background page of the Central Arava Regional Council the main season runs between September and May, and the official tourism site adds that this is the period from Rosh Hashanah to Shavuot. In recent years there is some expansion into the summer as well, mostly thanks to the swimming pools in the villages.
The explicit statement of months was published by the Central Arava, and on the Hevel Eilot sites we did not find such a statement. In practice businesses in the southern Arava behave similarly, and there is a field lodging site that is open from October to June only. The safe way is to check your own bookings from the last two years and build your calendar from them.
Desert experience phrases. Lodging in the Arava, a desert cabin, field lodging, agricultural tourism, things to do in the Arava, and searches around sites like Timna Park and Neot Semadar. Competition on them is low because almost no business in the region writes content, so one good page can hold a ranking for a long time.
Yes. For a rural business the profile is the main way people find it on the map and navigate to it. An accurate pin, the right category, real photos and reviews turn even a tiny place into a trustworthy result. It is also a direct channel that does not depend on portals and does not take a commission on the booking.
The council publishes an average annual occupancy of about 30 to 35% concentrated in holidays and weekends, which means midweek is the big open inventory. Build a dedicated offer for Sunday to Thursday, advertise it in a paid campaign to audiences with flexible schedules, and show it on the website and on the Google profile as well.
Work on the groundwork. The website, new content pages, photos, reviews and SEO fixes that need weeks to months to ripen. Some villages run summer events around the pools, but keep most of the budget for the season opening in September.
Want us to look at this for your business?
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