DRMumbai: Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) conducted a multi-city roadshow (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi) in August to enhance commercial ties with the Indian travel trade fraternity. In an effort to retain the growth momentum of Indian arrivals to Israel, the team interacted with over 650 key travel and tour operators, MICE providers and up-market leisure operators. The event commenced with a presentation leading to an interactive session with the IMOT team. The roadshow included B2B sessions, educational programmes and workshops to aid trade members in planning itineraries and responding to customer queries. The Israeli delegation was led by the newly appointed Director of Tourism for India & Philippines markets, Sammy Yahia along with Judah Samuel, Director – Marketing, IMOT, India and included five DMCs from Israel. More than 50 per cent of the attendees in Delhi and Mumbai were new agents checking out Israel to recommend to their customers.
India now stands third in Asia among the top source markets for Israel, which is aggressively working towards enhancing air connectivity between both countries
Sammy is responsible for leading the tourism board’s initiatives in India while overseeing the development of policies and strategies to strengthen Israel’s reputation as a world-class tourism and travel destination. Commenting on the roadshow, he said, “The arrivals from India have exceeded expectations in the last few years and we have seen the same trend in 2019. India now stands third in Asia among the top source markets for Israel. While keeping the momentum going, the idea is to aggressively work towards increasing connectivity between India and Israel by introducing new airlines to service the route. I am delighted with this new position and foresee ample opportunities for us to push boundaries and reinvent the ever evolving and dynamic Indian traveller.”
IMOT participated in various trade fairs and exhibitions this year including APEX, MILT, EXITO and SATTE to showcase the dynamic offerings of the destination to the travel trade community thereby luring travellers to consider Israel for a leisure holiday. Alongside, Israel has also quickly become Middle-East’s newest business tourism destination, gaining popularity with the Indian corporate and MICE segments. MICE travel to the country is booming at a steady pace. A YPO delegation and a 25-member delegation from Aries Agro Ltd. visited Israel in September. A massive MICE movement was the CREDAI 19th NATCON 2019 hosted by CREDAI Telangana & CREDAI Andhra Pradesh in August that witnessed 850 attendees.
Over the years, Indian cuisine has also taken centre stage with many celebrity chefs and culinary experts visiting the country for menu engineering, special collaborations and food festivals. While chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor, Thomas Zacharias, Manish Mehrotra and Rakhee Vaswani have travelled to Israel in the past, winner of Master Chef India, Chef Shipra Khanna visited the country for the Indian Culinary Festival at the Sheraton Tel Aviv in July this year. She recreated flavours of India with the hotel’s Executive Chef for a special menu during the festival.
From the historical city of Jerusalem to the beach city of Tel Aviv; from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, to the marvellous underwater marine life of Red Sea in Eilat, Israel offers a plethora of things to do and see for the discerning traveller.
Israel had its best tourism year in 2018, with more than 4.12 million tourist entries recorded, an increase of about 14 per cent compared to 2017. Around 70,800 Indian travellers visited the country in 2018 leading to a 21 per cent increase over 2017.
2019 is anticipated to show even faster growth thanks to new flight connectivity, hotel openings and other tourism ministry initiatives. Israel recorded 1.14 million overseas visitors in the first quarter of 2019, up 14 per cent from the corresponding period of 2018. “We do not see much change this year but the target is to clock 1 lakh visitors from India and 4.5 million globally in 2020,” said Yahia.
Be it airports, high speed rail lines, hotels & resorts and the like, Israel has been investing heavily into building tourism infrastructure. The Ramon International Airport in Eilat which opened in January 2019 to serve the Red Sea area has been a game changer. “We are seeking direct air connectivity to Red Sea area from Mumbai/Delhi. This airport can connect Jordan and Egypt to Israel in less than 30 minutes of flying time. For European visitors, this direct connectivity is a big boost and relieves Ben Gurion International Airport at Tel Aviv which is the current transit point,” added Yahia.
Upgrade of the Ben Gurion International Airport is progressing as a phased development. A new terminal is coming up and more luggage belts as well. When completed in 2025, it will be able to handle a capacity to 22 million travellers annually.
The new high speed train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem takes just 25 minutes. The rail option is certain to reduce road traffic and shorten travel time from the current 1.15 hours to about 45 minutes. Self drive is another area seeing traction among travellers to Israel.
The Six Senses Shaharut is slated to open in late 2019 in the Arava Valley of the Negev Desert. The Dead Sea Valley Tourism Complex, another massive development is having a staggered opening – one section of the promenade opened last year and was inaugurated by the Director General of the Tourism Ministry Amir Halewi. This project will complete by 2022 and alongside hotel room inventory in the area is also expanding.
Since introduction, the Israel Pass which grants access to six best national parks and nature reserves has been doing well with western markets. “Eastern markets consider Israel a relatively new destination. Hence tourists continue to move in groups and adhere to conventional travel routes. We hope to see this changing into more of FITs like in our western markets,” reasoned Yahia.
Of late, there is a steady rise in women groups and female solo travellers aided by the fact that Israel is a safe country and has lot to offer women travellers be it destinations, attractions or activities.
