Israel is an emerging tourist destination in India and has witnessed a phenomenal growth of 13% in 2015. The year 2015 saw approximately 40,000 Indian tourist visiting Israel compared to around 35,000 in 2014. December 2015 alone has seen a growth of 52% over last year. The country is a top tourist destination of the world and attracted over 3 million visitors globally in 2015. Witnessing the growth and potential from the India, Mr. Amir Halevi, Director General – Israel Ministry of Tourism along with Mr. David Maimon, CEO – El Al Airlines, Mr. Hassan Madah, Director – IMOT India, Mr. Judah Samuel, Director of Marketing – IMOT India has taken a progressive step forward in consolidating their presence in the India market.
IMOT organised a travel-trade interaction in Delhi and Mumbai on the 18th and 20th January respectively. The objective of these events was to highlight Israel as a leading leisure and MICE destination. Top-of-the-line travel professionals attended and interacted with the IMOT team for understanding the unique offerings to develop new products for Israel. Both the events received an overwhelming response from the travel fraternity.
Mr. Amir Halevi, Director General – IMOT on his maiden visit to India conversed with the travel fraternity to help them promote Israel as a prefered destination among holiday makers and
corporate travellers. He said, “Israel has been gaining popularity in India and has experienced a consistent growth in 2015. We have tripled the marketing budget for India in 2016 to tap the travel agents and direct consumers. We are confident that in 2016 a lot more Indians will choose Israel as their holiday destination. Israel is a safe and welcoming country.”
IMOT in 2016 will use various integrated strategies to woo Indian travellers. Speaking about the strategies, Mr. Hassan Madah, Director – IMOT India, commented, “The investments in 2015 like hosting TAFI convention and FAM tours for journalists and travel agents among other activities has led to positive increase in numbers and growing popularity of Israel in India. In 2016, IMOT will have more tourism promotions and activities than ever in India and target the travel trade and direct customers through various marketing tools. We will also target end consumers through marketing on digital platforms. We are sure that through profound strategies we will see a favourable growth in tourist arrivals from India to Israel this year. We are also looking at associating with Bollywood to promote Indian films in Israel.”
El Al provides direct connectivity and is also seeing an increase in the number of bookings from India. El Al now has 4 weekly flights which will give a great boost to Israel tourism from India. The airline has direct flights from Mumbai to Tel Aviv. IMOT is also in a discussion with the Civil Aviation Ministry and Indian airlines to have direct flights to Israel from India.
Israel is a friendly country with a number of museums, archaeological sities, and modern attractions to explore. Each region of Israel has something unique to offers. Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat, Nazareth, Haifa, Akko, Massada, Negev Desert are the famous tourist facets of Israel. The country offers picturesque locations, colourful markets and distinctive excursions for an exciting holiday. Highlighting the above offerings, IMOT hopes 2016 will be a positive year for Israel tourism from India.
