No room in Bethlehem’s inns as tourists return for Christmas season

West Bank city gears up for festive season after two years of pandemic restrictions

There's once again no room at the inn in Bethlehem as the Palestinian city gears up for its first Christmas season after two years of pandemic restrictions.

During the week of Christmas this year, 120,000 tourists and pilgrims from all over the world are expected to visit the occupied West Bank town, home to the Byzantine Church of the Nativity, which stands on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born. The predicted numbers for 2022 are almost on a par with 2019, when Bethlehem saw an all-time high of 150,000 visitors in the same time period, and 3 million visitors overall.