The Observer's page two feature, served up on Boxing Day, captured this perfectly:

The problem, say the authorities, is that Bethlehem's boom is not a very profitable one — at least not for many Palestinians. Most visitors spend too little time and cash in a city where the constraints of the Israeli occupation have dramatically diminished sources of employment, apart from tourism. The majority of visitors come by bus, spend a couple of hours in the church and then return to Israel, where they spend most of their holiday money.

"It is true that this is a record year and that we have never received so many tourists in Bethlehem. The problem is that we only get 10% of the tourist revenues. The rest stays in Israel," complains Palestinian tourism minister Khouloud Daibes. A total of 1.4 million people have visited Jesus's birthplace this year, a 60% increase compared with last year. According to the minister, 70%-80% of this year's tourists are one-day visitors.

The Palestinian tourism minister is further quoted by the journalist launching an all out attack on the Israeli thieves, accusing them of mounting, "a very aggressive promotional strategy... to shorten the stay of tourists in Bethlehem".

The Independent, too, painted a similar distorted picture:

Just off Manger Square, souvenir vendors watch with frustration as the tourists streaming out of the Church of the Nativity head back to their buses for the drive back to Jerusalem.

Shop owners claim that tour guides prevent their charges from heading into the winding, narrow alleyways of the Old City, where most souvenir shops are situated, and instead guide them to large gift shops owned by a few rich families where they receive commission. "So there's 1.5 million [visitors], but what do I make from them?" grumbles Ibrahim, a Palestinian in his 50s who is polishing an olive wood nativity scene. "Who takes the money? A few, and the rest of us are suffering."

Again, the idea that tours don't have all day to spend at one site does not seem to occur to anyone. Bethlehem, as a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, must obviously merit an overnight stay with time enough to visit every tourist shop in the vicinity.