With Maccabi Tel Aviv competing, Israelis will spend more than 12 million euros on the events surrounding the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid, according to tourism industry estimates. This figure is based on around 6,000 fans, including 500 business people, making the trip for the semifinals and the final of the Euroleague.
Prices for Final Four travel packages begin at 1,000 euros for the flights and three nights in a hotel, to 1,800 euros for a package that includes flights, three nights in a hotel and tickets to the basketball games themselves. According to Yehuda Zafrani, the deputy director general of Ophir Tours, most of the packages ordered until now have been family packages - apparently to take advantage of the shopping and cultural possibilities the city offers, for those who are not basketball fans.
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Zafrani noted that the Final Four will be played at the same time as soccer clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona also have matches, so it would be possible to book a package that includes tickets to the Final Four games along with some soccer matches.
Among the fans, hundreds of top-level business people are expected to make the trip, for which watching the Final Four has become part of their economic standing. The cost for an Israeli business person in Madrid is estimated at between 3,500 and 7,000 euros.
Shai Marina, vice president for commerce and planning at Israir, says that the distance to Madrid increases the cost of the package. Israir's package prices, including flights and three nights in a three- or four-star hotel, are between 1,150-1,400 euros, and do not include game tickets.
The package from Issta, including a flight on May 2 or May 5, a three-star hotel, transfers to the hotel and to the basketball arena, and a ticket to the game in the upper stands behind the baskets, costs 1,500 euros. A package from Walla! Tours, including charter flights, taxes, three nights in a four-star hotel and tickets to all of the Final Four games costs 1,400 euros.
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