The 11 luxury bungalows at the Midbara compound in the central Arava desert region in the south of Israel are reserved three months out. The facility is 100% booked over the weekends and 90% booked in the middle of the weeks. “It’s like that all year,” says Rani Shirai, one of Midbara’s operators.

This is no small success. It's dry in the Arava in the summer, but the temperatures can reach as high as 45°C (115°F). That hardly sounds appealing, especially in the middle of the desert. “We provide the desert experience under optimal conditions. The place itself is isolated. It is 100 kilometers [62 miles] to the nearest city, and the sky is lit up with stars. There is no background noise, either,” says Shirai, who readily shares his success story with others.

The Arava village of Tzukim was founded 10 years ago. The primary source of income for its residents is tourism, even though the rest of the region is devoted entirely to agriculture. The Central Arava Regional Council consists of seven localities, five of which are agricultural. Similarly, most of the villages in the Hevel Eilot region immediately to the south are also agricultural. But the past few years have not been good to the farmers of the Arava, and they have been forced to find additional sources of income. Kobi Derscher, for example, closed down his greenhouses after 25 years growing peppers and other vegetables, mostly for export. All he left himself was a small grove of date palms when he opened the Song of the Arava guest inn.

“We grew outstanding produce,” he tells Al-Monitor, “but over the past three years, we’ve been getting paid less per kilo. The exchange rate between the shekel and the euro dropped, and the costs of middlemen increased. Then there are pests, weather disasters, wars, harsh taxation policies and rising prices for production costs and raw materials. Yet despite all that, the price per kilo remained the same.” There was also the unexpected collapse of the ruble, which dealt a mortal blow to the farmers of the Arava. Their main crop of peppers is exported primarily to Russia. When the ruble collapsed, it brought the whole market down with it.