All Entries Tagged With: "tourism"

Netanya - the new Ibiza?

Interest was sparked last week by the city of Netanya’s declaration that it fully intended to become the new Ibiza of the Middle East. Some spluttered over their cornflakes, some laughed out loud, while others just shook their heads in disbelief.

Netanya has a great coastline, some 14km long with cliffs, a nice promenade and some great sea views. It also has close to 200,000 residents, with plans to almost double this in the next ten years or so. But I’m not so sure that doubling of residents will be down to Netanya becoming the new party capital of the region.

Netanya has a sizable English-speaking community, as well as a large number of French and Russian Jewish immigrants. But this population is not exactly the youngest in Israel, and plans to turn Netanya into a hip, happening hotspot might just get the blue-rinse crowd out into the streets, placards aloft.

But I guess it only takes one visionary, one person with the guts and determination to take a city forward, and Netanya seems to have that in Culture Councillor Zuzi Zilberberg, who really does think Netanya can be the next best thing on the world party scene:

In my opinion, the beaches in Netanya are no less spectacular than the ones in Ibiza. I think that our beach fronts are an inextricable part of our culture. Let’s see what we can do to attract the youth masses to our beaches, just as Ibiza did.

We say any city that has a vision to bring itself bang into the 21st century is brave and probably deserving of a pat or two on the back. But what is wrong with Netanya being, well, Netanya? Does it really have to be the new Ibiza, especially with a city like Tel Aviv, The City That Never Sleeps, just down the road?

Gay friendly Tel Aviv pulling the punters in

Last week’s Pride Parade in Tel Aviv is perhaps the final confirmation that Israel really is as progressive a nation as they come, a great selling point to a world convinced that Israel is only about Gaza, settlements and terrorism. A world certainly in need of some sun, sand and good times.

Recently the Israeli Foreign Ministry has embarked on a definitely more liberal route of promoting tourism to Israel, what with its campaign (via Elal) to convince European gays to fly over to Tel Aviv for a cheap package holiday (they actually got a very good deal!) and the promotion of a US-based Israel advocacy group, StandWithUs, whose backers include conservative Americans like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and who flew in a group of journalists and gay activists from the United States and Europe last week that climaxed (ahem!) in Tel Aviv’s Pride Parade.

The Foreign Ministry may have even gone too far recently, what with their success in offending many with their quite crass attempts at making Israel seem like a sexy place to visit. Handing out condoms in a goodie bag might just have pushed the envelope a tad wee too far, especially when your audience includes many religious Jews.

Last week’s Pride Parade also saw a new chapter in relations between the state itself and the gay community in Israel. Five couples, three sets of brides and two sets of grooms, got married in an offical ceremony (although not officially recognised by the state), with each couple - in perhaps a direct affront to the Jewish religious establishment - swearing allegiance to Tel Aviv, rather than the traditional option of Jerusalem.

If I forget thee, O Tel Aviv, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Tel Aviv above my highest joy.

This could only have happened in an open and free Tel Aviv. 

Tel Aviv’s tolerant attitude towards the gay community has thus ensured its acceptance is used as marketing material to pull the tourists in, whatever their sexual orientation. Not everybody is happy about it, but we’re a firm believer in respecting others, whatever their religious or sexual persuasion.

Welcome to Israel!

Visit Israel - bring a condom!

A recent Israel tourism event in London, largely focused on the funkiness of Tel Aviv as a tourist destination and attended by some of Israel’s leading tourist-industry players, including Israel’s national airline El-Al and some of the biggest Tel Aviv hotels, raised quite a few eyebrows; to be precise, it was the contents of the goodie bag given to each guest that provided the shock value.

The advertising campaign promoted by the Israel Tourism Ministry at this event had obviously been given a helping hand from researchers who’d discovered that the Brits are a randy bunch (what, you didn’t know?). So what did they include in the goodie bag? That’s right, condoms!

Personally, I’m not offended (I’m a Brit, and, as deduced by the Israeli Tourism Ministry, that must mean I’m a randy old goat). But surely someone might have realised the British travel agents invited would include religious Jews and other more conservative types. Not everyone is as liberal and open-minded as those in the Tourism Ministry, so it seems. One travel agent summed it up nicely:   

All of the British travel agents were appalled by this tasteless advertising tactic. Among the agents were many religious Jews who inquired whether this was the way that Israel was being marketed abroad. 

And what is the message the Tourism Ministry is trying to convey here? That Israel is a great sex tourist destination? A new alternative to Amsterdam or Bangkok? Because trust me, sex is out there, and in some places it’s fairly easy to find, but Israel/Tel Aviv is not the new Bangkok. Just seems a bit tacky to me, especially when you’ve got some genuinely great reasons to visit Israel.

The Tourism Ministry has since apologized over this incident.

Leave those Holy buildings alone, please!

So, those old Holy Sites throughout the Holy Land must be a real tease for serious archaeological groupies. All that history and drama wrapped up in ancient stones and pillars. It must be such a thrill for them to purse their lips, give a quick blow, and whoosh, the dust from centuries of sweat, blood and tears is off with the wind.

It seems that one such archaeological student got a little carried away by all that dust some 12 years ago and stole a big chunk of marble pillar he had helped excavate in Jerusalem. That chunk was some 21kg and is believed to be part of the palace of the Umayyad Caliphs, the Muslim rulers who built a number of important Muslim places of worship, including the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The anonymous tourist/archaeological student from New York sent back the stone in a crate after the guilt and regret seemed to have eaten away at him. A note that accompanied the crate revealed that guilt:

For the past 12 years since then, rather than remind me of the prayer for Jerusalem, I’m reminded of the mistake I made when I removed the stone from its proper place in Israel.

I just want to know how the heck he got on a flight with a 21kg chunk of Jerusalem stone in his suitcase.

UPDATE: This post is now closed for comments, thanks to an influx of spam.

Israel to banish the sexiness?

The Pope’s recent visit to the Holy Land has apparently convinced the new Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov that good, old Christian values are the way forward, leaving no room for the poster girls such as Bar Refaeli, that have, er, inspired millions to visit the Holy Land. The Minister seems to think that Israel’s quality lies in its amazing tourist attractions, rather than its beaches and bikinis, and had this to say:

“Former tourism ministers were mistaken when they tried to market Israel as a vacation spot for those seeking attractive beaches and girls. Ministers who focused on pictures of or with models thought it would bring tourists to Israel. But their mistake was that our neighbors also have attractive women and beaches and we can’t compete with them in terms of prices of vacation packages.

What Israel needs to do is focus on what it has that others don’t have, or in other words: the Holy Land. Israel is holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the focus of the tourism ministry today is to promote Israel as such.”

Without question, Israel has some amazing Holy sites that attract millions of tourists every year. These will always pull in the visitors. I’m just not sure you can take Israel’s other natural beauties such as Bar Refaeli out of the equation and I don’t think they harm the perception of the Holy Land as a great tourist destination. Surely any decent, respectable tourist, even if tempted in by the scantily-clad models used in adverts, is a good thing, especially in tough economic times?

Don’t worry Bar, if Stas won’t have you, we’ll gladly have you as our poster girl. Just don’t tell the wife.

El Al goes gay

El Al, Israel’s national airline, has gone all out to bring Europe’s gays to the Holy Land, just in time for Gay Pride month in June.  Some very special travel packages are on offer, including a round trip from any European city and three nights in a Tel Aviv hotel, starting from a very reasonable $330. That is actually a whole lot more sweeter than reasonable, considering the summer season, with summer prices, is about to kick in.

But it looks like El Al has twigged on about the potential of gay tourism, which is notoriously more open-wallet than non-gay tourists. Marketing efforts won’t be mainstream: instead El Al has teamed up with a leading gay website in Israel, encouraging members to invite European friends over, with Gay Pride month in Tel Aviv - extra special this year thanks to Tel Aviv’s centenary celebrations - the obvious attraction. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of gay tourists are expected in Tel Aviv during June, thanks to this new campaign.

“This is a disgrace. Just as El Al was sensitive to the ultra-Orthodox community and refrained from flying on Shabbat and serves kosher meals, it shouldn’t take part in this. And in general, this whole pride parade – it would be better to watch a show at the circus than this parade.”

 

The Japanese love Tel Aviv sushi!

Yes, it seems that the Japanese have fallen in love with sushi restaurants in Tel Aviv. The number of Japanese tourists, as well as those from other Asian countries such as China, has grown some 20% in the last year and, yes, there must be a valid explanation. It has to be the sushi in Tel Aviv.

The numbers of Japanese tourists interested in Israel has grown so fast over the last couple of years that the publishers of Japan’s biggest tourist guides have included Israel in its latest series of Globetrotter books, the apparent tourist bible of the Japanese. The equivalent to the Lonely Planet guides, I guess. Sales of this guide have proved successful - the new guide book has climbed to second place on the company’s best-seller list of guide books by country. 

Could that mean that real soon we’ll be sat alongside hordes of Japanese tourists in Tel Aviv’s sushi bars, with cameras flashing and V signs aplenty? I’m going to start perfecting my “mashi mashi” and “konnichiwa”, as well as brush up on my chopstick skills…

Gay tourism to the Holy Land

As anyone who has spent time in Israel knows, Israel has a thriving and very happening gay community. It may seem out of place in the Holy Land and does often invoke the wrath of the more religious, but it’s here to stay.

And that thriving community is about to be expanded by more of the international gay community; some 200 travel agents from across the world are expected at the annual International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association symposium, which is coming to Tel Aviv for the first time this October, to market Tel Aviv to members of the gay community. 

Shay Deutsch, spokesman for the Israeli gay community, was excited:

“The advantage of such a convention is that it exposes to travel agencies around the world what Tel Aviv has to offer to the gay population, and after such a convention, tourism blossoms in the hosting city”.

Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham Balila had this to say:

“The city is promoting the matter of gay tourism to Tel Aviv. I welcome any tourist coming to Israel, regardless of their sex, opinions, or sexual preferences.”

Hear hear, is what we say. Coming soon, the Gay Guide to Israel.