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February 18, 2005
Tourism to Israel is on the rise
Most of the 43,000 Canadians who visited the Holy Land were Jewish.
KYLE BERGER
It's taken more than four years but the Israel Government Tourist
Office (IGTO) finally has some good news to report. When Dani Shahal,
IGTO's Canadian director, visited Vancouver in January, he announced
an increase of tourism to Israel by 41 per cent in 2004 compared
to 2003.
More than 1.5 million people visited the land of milk and honey
last year, a much closer number to the 2.7 million tourists Israel
hosted annually before the current intifada broke out in October
2000.
Referring to Canada specifically, Shahal said that 43,000 Canadians
made the cross-Atlantic trip in 2004, compared to 30,000 in 2003
and 55,000 in 2000.
"There is a definite confidence returning to Canadian tourists
travelling to Israel," Shahal explained of the dramatic increase.
"After the war in Iraq, the [tourism] situation in Israel started
to improve because we managed to improve the security force in Israel
and we started to overcome the situation."
One of the most notable changes in the tourism numbers is the ratio
of Jews to Christians who are making the trip. According to Shahal,
in the past, about 75 per cent of Israel's Canadian visitors were
Christians. However, in 2004, the IGTO believes that 70 per cent
of the 43,000 guests were Jewish, which ultimately represents a
significant increase in Jews heading to Israel.
"The Jews of Canada are feeling the need to support Israel,
but they are also feeling the need to visit as an experience for
themselves," he said. "In December, a Canadian tour operator
took 300 families in order to celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs
in Israel."
The most dramatic increase of tourism came from France, where anti-Semitism
has been on the rise. The IGTO said that more than one third of
the approximately 600,000 Jews living in France visited Israel in
2004.
"They don't want to go to their traditional places that they
used to go to like Morocco," Shahal said. "Instead, they
are going to Israel and that is really phenomenal."
The United States sent the most tourists (378,000) and Canada's
43,000 was the sixth largest contingent.
Shahal has been working with the IGTO since 1967 and has also served
as the director of offices in South Africa and the Netherlands.
He came to Canada in 2001 because he looked forward to the big challenge
in front of him as Canadian tourism to Israel took a plunge.
When I came here, tourism in Israel was really bad and we needed
to perform some miracles," he said. "I am not selling
packages. Our goal is to create an atmosphere and demand for people
to go to Israel."
Based in Toronto, Shahal regularly travels around Canada promoting
travel to Israel. While in Vancouver he met with local Jewish and
Christian leaders, as well as various travel agents who sell or
lead tours to Israel.
When he began working in Canada in 2001, Shahal explained, his mission
was to convince people to visit Israel to show solidarity. Now his
efforts have changed directions.
"Today we want people to go just to be a tourist, re-connect
with holy sites and visit all the facilities and beautiful places
to see in Israel," he said, adding that he expects the re-growth
of tourism to continue in 2005, predicting another increase of 25
per cent.
"The Israel Government Tourist Office is sending eight or nine
media missions who will come and be able to tell people that it
is safe. We will show them the wine industry in Israel, some typical
restaurants and a variety of others things you can do."
Shahal noted that tourism and the high-tech industry are the two
engines that run Israel's economy.
"Each airplane with 300 passengers provides about 15 to 20
jobs in Israel," he said.
More than 100,000 tourism-based jobs were lost as a result of the
violence between Israel and the Palestinians. For more information
on travel to Israel, visit www.goisrael.com.
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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