Just days after Kibbutz Neot Smadar was added to the U.N. Tourism 2025 list of 52 Best Tourism Villages in the world, the kibbutz’s tourism director told Hebrew-language outlet Ynet on Monday that the small community in Israel’s south could not handle the flood of booking requests.

“In the guest rooms they told me, ‘Enough, we’re collapsing, we can’t keep up,’” said Adva Meir-Weil. “Suddenly there were so many inquiries,” the director added.

The kibbutz, located in the southern Arava, was “very surprised” to be included in the prestigious U.N. list, Meir-Weil continued, “but on the other hand we worked four years [to achieve] this. When we received the announcement in September we were thrilled and glad,” she related.

In the letter, the U.N. agency praised the kibbutz for its cultural

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