If El Al Israel Airlines is any barometer, interest among Angelenos in visiting Israel has been on an upswing as violence in the Middle East subsides.
The airline has added one weekly flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, pushing the number of El Al flights between the two cities to an all-time weekly high of six.
The flights have been ramped up from four last spring in anticipation of increased travel to Israel for the Passover holiday and the summer vacation season.
El Al expects the number of passengers taking the 18-hour flight to jump by 26 percent this year. Throughout the United States, the number of travelers is expected to increase by 15 percent.
Israel’s improving political climate and the weak dollar are contributing to increased travel. “There’s a pretty strong market here going to Israel,” said Bill Gale, the West Coast regional manager for El Al Airlines. “Certainly, the fact that there is a period of relative calm is a major factor.”
Sarah Kram, a manager at Jerusalem Tours in Los Angeles, estimated that her bookings on flights and at hotel rooms in Israel have gone up 25 percent from last year.
“This year is much more than any other year,” said Kram, who noted that a local resident booking with Jerusalem Tours typically spends $3,000 for a two- to three- week stay in Israel. “Most flights are completely full. We have more people going, and we have more people calling.”
Beach Chic
To sleep in the minimalist surroundings of a sleek boutique hotel, an out-of-towner had to pony up for a taxi ride from LAX to Westwood or West Hollywood.
Now, the South Bay has two new hotels The Belamar, which opened early this month, and the Shade, scheduled to open late summer that will give travelers the boutique experience. Both are in Manhattan Beach.
“Right now, the South Bay doesn’t really have much in the way of upscale contemporary hip hotels, and that is the niche we are really looking to fill,” said William Lantig, whose Lanting Management Group took over hotel operations at the Belamar last year.
The new hotels won’t suffer for customers, said Helen Duncan, executive director of the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce, citing the lack of properties in the city, especially those catering to boutique clientele.
“We have younger, more affluent people in Manhattan Beach than we have ever had before,” she said.
LaeRoc Partners Inc., the Hermosa Beach-based owner of the Belamar, spent $9 million to turn the former classic Victorian-style Barnabey’s Hotel into the swanky Belamar. The 127-room property, located at 3501 Sepulveda Blvd., was closed for two years during renovations.
“In its past, the hotel was very English country cottage, which was really great when we are we were all listening to Joni Mitchell,” said Lanting. “The problem is that got tired.”
Guests pay a minimum of $199 for a night at the Belamar. That’s over $100 more than the $95.54 average daily room rate for the South Bay in January this year, according to PKF Consulting.
The Shade Hotel, being developed for $6 million by Michael Zislis, the owner of the Rock N’ Fish restaurant in Manhattan Beach, still is in the works. It will have 38 rooms.
LaeRoc bought the former Barnabey’s from LAX Hotel LLC for $13.5 million three years ago. Opening along with the Belamar is Vibe, the hotel’s restaurant, whose executive chef Sherie Pegues had worked at Le Meridian and the St. Regis Hotels.
This and That
The Beverly Center is placing towels with ad slogans in area gyms as part of its “Am I Ordinary” marketing campaign that started this month. Slogans also will be plastered on sidewalks, theater screens and restaurants and clubs. “We are really getting to the places where people spend their lives,” said Barbara Bach, marketing director of the mall, which has stuck to traditional advertising venues in the past Subway riders in Tokyo and Osaka recently got a glimpse of celebrities such as Lionel Richie touting Los Angeles. It was part of a $1.2 million campaign to bring Japanese visitors to L.A. “(Japan) is a market that still needs some attention, and it is not up to the levels it was before Sept. 11,” said Chris Heywood, a spokesman for LA Inc., one of the campaign sponsors. Japanese tourism to Los Angeles is only now recovering from the huge drop-off after the 2001 terrorism attacks David LeFevre, formerly the executive chef at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, has taken over the kitchen of the Water Grill in downtown where Michael Cimarusti had been executive chef since 1997. The restaurant also hired as its pastry chef Koa Duncan, formerly of Bastide in West Hollywood.
Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or by e-mail at
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