Tourism to Israel is certainly belting along in the right direction this year, with some record figures for March set to be joined by additional record breaking months throughout the year. The Israeli Tourism Ministry has taken note, and has announced plans to invest some 34 million shekels in advertising Israel as one heck of a tourist destination throughout Europe and the US. That’s quite a stack of cash.
The Tourism Ministry is looking to pull in about 1.5 million tourists over May-September, which should push Israel’s tourism stats for the year into the record books…with the majority of tourists coming to Israel expected to come from the USA, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Sweden and Holland.
As a result, a three month advertising campaign is about to be launched in these countries, promoting Israel as the place to be, with a variety of amazing things to see and do. And it won’t be just about pushing The Holy Land, it’ll also be about Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, Eilat and other locations throughout the Galilee and the south, with also some niche markets targeted, such as food and wine, and extreme sports.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov had this to say:
The recovery of incoming tourism in recent months has been one of the fastest in the Israeli economy and has contributed to the state coffers and to the creation of new jobs. In order to meet the challenges that face the ministry – the target of 3.3 million tourists in 2010 and 4 million in 2012 and the difficult competition with other countries in the region that invest huge amounts in tourism development, infrastructure and marketing – the marketing budget must be significantly increased over the next two years.
Oh yes, we expect a record-breaking flood of tourists this year!