Rafi Farber, vice president of the Hoteliers Association, says they have received cancellations by groups from Italy and Spain for July and August. "The American Christian tourism doesn't start until Septenber and so they have time before they cancel," he explained. According to Farber, this was a black week for the Israeli tourism industry. "We are experienced people," he said. "If the fighting is not time-limited, it could bring about a catastrophe, after a short good period."

"As long as the missiles were falling in places that tourists had never heard of, it was okay. When Haifa and Tiberias came into range, the problems started," said Kurt Kaufmann, CEO of Genesis-Kelly Tours.

According to Kaufmann, from tomorrow the company will be fighting for its charter flights that it operates from Lisbon for Portuguese pilgrims. "These are Catholic pilgrims," he said. "We are getting lots of e-mails with questions about next week - whether to come or not. We decided to tell them that as far as next month was concerned, not to cancel."

He said he has 260 seats on 10 Arkia flights, which are paid in advance.

Kaufmann added that the company was about to begin a big marketing campaign in Brazil, together with the Tourism Ministry. "A ministry representative left the country with a long-term plan which we are involved in, and now there is uncertainty and confusion over what comes next."

One of the partners in Genesis-Kelly spent this week in Valencia, during a visit by Pope Benedict XVI. Genesis was the company that brought 50,000 pilgrims during the visit of the late pope John Paul II in 2000. Now, the company wanted to get an update on plans for a visit by the current pope at the end of 2007 and to book rooms for the visit. Kaufmann says they no longer know how realistic this is.

According to Oni Amiel, CEO of Amiel Tours, groups of American Jews who spent time in Poland and were supposed to come here, went home instead. There have also been cancellations among Christian groups.

On the other hand, there are groups of American Jews who are determined to come.