Acre named most hospitable city in Israel by Booking.com

After a couple years putside of the top spot, the city of Acre retook its position as Israel's most hospitable city in this year's Booking.com Traveler Review Awards.

 ACRE HARBOR (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
ACRE HARBOR
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The northern Israeli city of Acre was named the most hospitable city in Israel by travel booking website Booking.com’s 2023 Traveler Review Awards. 

While Acre has been recognized by the Traveler Review Awards in the past as Israel’s most hospitable city, it lost this distinction for a couple of years after Rosh Pina took the top spot in 2021 and 2022. Rosh Pina was ranked the second-most hospitable city in Israel in this year’s report, followed by Had Ness, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon. 

"We are excited and proud that the city of Acre was ranked first by Booking.com,” The Mayor of Acre, Shimon Lankri, declared in response to the coveted ranking. “In Acre, we emphasize content tourism and invest in the depth of the cultural, historical and culinary content. The secret of the city's success in recent years lies in the combination of its geographic location and history that makes it unique, alongside an unprecedented investment in projects to upgrade the tourist experience.”

Mayor Lankri also made it a point to give recognition to the hospitality establishments that have helped make Acre the tourist destination it has become today – despite the challenges brought along by the COVID-19 pandemic that battered the hospitality industry around the world.

PLAYING MATKOT on Acre beach, which is equipped with a path for disabled swimmers (#42) (credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)
PLAYING MATKOT on Acre beach, which is equipped with a path for disabled swimmers (#42) (credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)

“We will continue to invest to provide a response to the number of tourists that visit the city every year and to offer a different, exciting and different tourism,” Lankri added.

2023 Traveler Review Awards

A total of 3,009 Israeli hospitality companies received recognition in this year’s awards out of a total of nearly 1.4 million awards given globally by Booking.com. Italian hospitality companies received the most awards globally with over 170,000 total awards presented, while Spain had nearly 110,000 establishments that received the distinction. 

France was the only other country to receive over 100,000 awards with a total of 103,000 establishments recognized, while Germany (~75,000) and Croatia (~65,000) rounded out the top five globally.

Polignano a Mare, Italy was named the most hospitable city in the world for the first time. Hualien City in Taiwan was named the second-most hospitable city in the world in this year’s report, while San Sebastian in Spain took third place. Dresden, Germany and Klaipeda, Lithuania concluded the top five most hospitable cities list globally.