TORONTO — Coming off of one of its most successful tourism years on record, Israel is launching a new ad campaign aimed at more affluent travellers, and it’s expanding its marketing reach in Canada by striking deals with travel agents who serve communities that have rarely thought of the Holy Land as a destination.
Arie Sommer
On a visit to Toronto’s Israel Government Tourism Office (IGTO) last week from New York, Arie Sommer, Israel’s tourism commissioner for North and South America, outlined to the media some of the strategies that Israel is using to build on the success of its 2008 campaign.
“We’ve set a goal to bring 1,000,000 North American tourists to Israel in 2012,” Sommer said, adding that last year, Israel attracted 3,000,000 tourists from around the world. Of those, approximately 700,000 were from North America, including 70,000 Canadians.
He said Israeli tourism officials had forecast an “even better” year in 2009, but the war in Gaza and the global economic downturn have dampened expectations. Now, Sommer said he’d consider the year a success if there was only a 20 per cent drop in tourism this year.
Sommer stressed that while he continues to value traditional Jewish and Christian travellers, he said it’s time for Israel to become a “real tourist destination” and go after the “sophisticated traveller”market.
He described the latter as people who have more disposable income and who like to spontaneously visit destinations for pleasure, not necessarily for religious reasons.
“We believe we can divert these travelers and their families… to Israel” instead of going to Europe and Asia, he said. “Israel must increase its share of these travellers.”
Reporters were shown a series of 2009 TVcommercial spots and poster ads put together by Israel’s tourism ministry as part of a campaign that cost $4.5 million.
Titled “You’ll love Israel from the first ‘Shalom’” and “Israel: No One Belongs Here More Than You,” the various TV ads range from one focusing on a young couple making their first visit to the Holy Land and being greeted with robust “Shaloms” by smiling Israelis to one featuring a family exploring Israel’s many wonders together.
Sommer also spoke at length about how the Canadian market is expanding due to recent, local public relations campaigns that paint Israel in a new light as a safe and fun travel destination.
He said Israel’s tourism offices have been working hard to “bring in new wholesalers” to sell Israel to Canada’s Chinese and Indian communities, among others.
“For years, we neglected our retail travel agents because we worked [primarily] with the Jewish and Christian communities. But we realized we’re lacking the sales force to sell Israel,”Sommer said. “We’re now conducting seminars with travel agents [representing various ethnic communities], and I think gradually these agents are realizing it’s worthwhile to sell Israel as a travel destination.”
Oded Grofman, director of the IGTOin Canada, said his office has heard from its new partner travel agents that “they’re receiving more calls” from their communities regarding travel to Israel.
In addition to promoting celebrations of Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary this year, Sommer said his office is also planning to use the Pope’s upcoming trip to Israel in May to drum up more interest in the country among Catholics.
“Unfortunately, we don’t see too many Catholics visiting Israel. They prefer [travelling to] the Vatican,”he said jokingly.
On another front, Sommer said Israel has also increased its trips for journalists to Israel in order to increase the country’s positive exposure in the worldwide media.
“We have hundreds of journalists visit each year,” he said.
According to the IGTO, 25 Canadian journalists have travelled to Israel already this year.
Sommer said that many major travel publications are enquiring about Israel, and he noted that enRoute, Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, is looking into a piece about Israel for publication in the near future.
