Israel welcomes travellers

With the announcement released that Israel will focus on welcoming vaccinated international travellers from May 2021, there is a new ray of hope in this newly discovered source market. Ksenia Kobiakov, Director Israel Tourism shares more details of their new plan of action.

Q Do share the latest status when it comes to visa between UAE and Israel?

According to the latest statement, visas for the UAE will be approved on July, or even earlier if Israel will open its borders to tourists, beforehand

Q Could you share your strategies to market the destination?

UAE is a brand new market for our Ministry, specifically for our New Markets Development department. We see great potential in incoming tourism from that destination. Therefore, we have put in action a detailed work plan to promote tourism from UAE. The plan includes seminars and webinars for TO’s and wholesalers. Already on February we launched a website and social media pages (both in Arabic and English) dedicated to the Gulf countries. Additionally, we are currently working on an advertising campaign (both online and offline). We are planning FAM trips, media and influencer hostings and participation in tourism fairs. Furthermore, we are inspecting the sites which we think will be of interest to tourists from the UAE, building itineraries for hostings, instructing hoteliers and tour guides on how to correctly host the UAE tourists.

Q How will you work with agents between the two destinations proactively at this point of time?

On the 16th of December we had a big digital forum, where the first introduction between the two countries tourism industries was made- the interest was high, as numbers show- more than 500 participants from both sides. After it, we shared the contact info of the Israeli wholesalers with the UAE side, and vice versa. In addition to that, we proceeded our work with online meetings, with the biggest wholesalers in the industry and have arranged more than 40 meetings already; all of which discussed cooperation between Israel Ministry of Tourism and UAE wholesalers and the promotion of Israel as a tourism destination.

Q Most destinations are working on building confidence in the travelers, so that when borders open their destination will be top on the list, what sort of initiatives will you take to develop a similar approach?

Our Ministry is working constantly on branding and awareness. We launched a website and social media pages (both in Arabic and English), had a press conference after the first digital forum on the 16th of December and have been interviewed on top media platforms. We soon will launch our first online and offline advertising campaign. Alongside that, we plan hostings for media and influencers later on, when time permits.

Moreover, the Infrastructure and Investment Development administration worked this year to preserve the tourism infrastructure, both public and private. Apart from that, it is known that Israel in the leading country in vaccination, not to mention that we have corona guidelines and protocol that are now active and visibly in action, now that Israel has gone out of  lockdown. All of that, grants travelers confidence when travelling to Israel.

Q Will you be at ATM? If so, what will you be sharing/ showcasing?

Yes, we are planning to attend ATM with a beautiful booth showcasing Israel as a destination perfectly fitted for Gulf visitors.  Israel is an incredible country with natural beauty and many historical and cultural sites for all interests: history, archaeology, religions, culinary or culture. It is a place where cultures, ideas and religion meet, creating a unique and exquisite experience.

Israel is a must visit destination for many nations in the world. We are happy to enlarge our work span with Muslim tourists, which will definitely find plenty of important and interesting sites in Israel to visit. We are sure they will find out we have more similarities than thought.

Specifically for Gulf visitors, there are many great attractions. Even though we don’t have a lot of experience working with the Muslim tourist we serve as a perfect destination due to our great similarities. We have many Halal food restaurants, as well as Kosher (with similar restrictions as Halal). Additionally, Arab language is a second official language in Israel. First of all, tourists and pilgrims are visiting Jerusalem with its mixture of the ancient and modern, important religious and archaeological sites, cultural hotspots and a world class culinary scene. All this and
more will be showcased on our booth.

Q What is the status on vaccinations in Israel?

It is known, that Israel in the leading country in vaccination. In Israel, the vaccination process is taking a rapid paste, with, according to now, almost 70% of the population is vaccinated with both doses. We are very optimistic as for opening our borders, seeing how things are slowly getting back to normal and businesses and media centers opening. We are very keen to open our gates to tourists from all over the world, and especially from the UAE.

Q What is the recommended itinerary and number of days tourists should stay to discover Israel?

Israel is a very small country, it is only420 km in length and about 115 km across at the widest point. But, in this tiny country we have nine climate zones, so when you travel in Israel your surroundings change every constantly.