If you thought tourism numbers couldn’t get much higher (last year’s record 3.45 million tourists could be well beaten this year), you weren’t taking into account Christian tourism from Latin America!
Today, our pal Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov is meeting the leaders of COICOM – Â the Iberoamerican Confraternity of Christian Communicators, who are here as part of efforts to promote Christian tourism from Latin America to Israel.
With a number of journalists and media professionals in the organization, including Jeter Stanley, a senior producer from the popular Evangelical channel in the United States, and other members broadcasting from over 3000 Evangelical radio stations and 1500 television stations, there is the potential for some BIG publicity for the Holy Land.
With Christian tourism now a crucial component of Israel’s tourism numbers, with 70% of last year’s 3.45 million tourists to Israel of Christian faith, and half of those pilgrims coming to visit amazing sites such as Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, it’s no surprise to see the Tourism Ministry working hard to foster some good relations with various Christian communities and organizations throughout the world.
Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov had this to say:
Christian tourism to Israel, along its many denominations, is an important anchor in tourism to Israel of which the Ministry of Tourism has placed a lot of emphasis on marketing. Over the last year, we have increased cooperation with Christian community leaders, especially among Evangelicals, with the goal of meeting the tourism potential of a community of hundreds of millions of believers worldwide.
We say “Welcome to the Holy Land!” – the quicker the better!