TOURISM MINISTRY PREPARES FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS AND VISITORS OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD
3.1 MILLION TOURISTS VISITING ISRAEL
TOURISM MINISTRY PREPARES FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS AND VISITORS OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD
The year 5770 of the Hebrew calendar, which comes to a close in three weeks time, is the best ever Hebrew year for incoming tourism: about 3.1 million tourists visited Israel during 5770 – 18% more than 5769 (2.6 million) and 10% more than 5768 (2.8 million).
During the past few months, the Tourism Ministry has been preparing to welcome the 260,000 tourists who are expected to visit Israel during the Jewish holidays in September as well as the tens of thousands of Israelis who are expected to visit tourism, leisure and entertainment sites around the country.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov has toured the country in recent months to investigate the readiness and levels of cleanliness and maintenance of, among others, hotels and tourism attractions. The minister will also visit additional hotels in the coming days in Eilat (24.8.10), Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where particularly high levels of occupancy are expected, in order to check their readiness for the upcoming New Year holidays.
Within the framework of the Tourism Ministry’s preparations for welcoming tourists, inspection teams from the Ministry will carry out inspections in tourism areas where high tourist traffic is expected during the Jewish holidays, including tourist sites, hotels and city spaces, checking, among others, the readiness and levels of cleanliness and maintenance of hotels and tourism attractions in order to ensure a pleasant vacation for tourists and Israelis alike.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov noted that the focused marketing efforts of the ministry in the last year have succeeded in significantly increasing incoming tourism and improving Israel’s image as an attractive tourism destination: “The Tourism Ministry will increase its marketing activity in the coming year in order to progress the ministry’s target of bringing another million tourists to Israel by 2012 and 5 million by 2015.”
The Ministry’s tourism offices in Jerusalem, Eilat and Nazareth will operate on a normal footing during the holidays and the intermediate days of Sukkot. The office at Ben Gurion International Airport will remain open 24 hours a day, including during the Jewish holidays.
BPI-info
