KEY POINTS:
It is one of the best-performing tourist destinations in the world. The number of guests in the past year has more than doubled. Welcome to sunny Palestine.
The number of tourists staying at hotels in the Palestinian territories rose 108 per cent last year to levels not seen since the Intifada.
In 2007, 315,866 guests spent 673,458 nights in the region's 82 hotels. Palestinian hotel firms plan to add 10,000 rooms in east Jerusalem, Jericho and Bethlehem over the next three years.
Palestinians may have treated this month's 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel as a time of mourning but the Palestinian stock exchange, based in the West Bank city of Nablus, has risen by 40 per cent over the past year.
In the past month market capitalisation of listed Palestinian firms has risen by 10 per cent to US$3.2 billion ($4.1 billion).
This week the biggest private sector conference on inward investment to date will be held - more than 800 firms will gather in Bethlehem for the Palestine Investment Conference, where projects valued at US$2 billion will be showcased.
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