Israel Ministry of Tourism is set to open its first permanent office in India in Mumbai by May 2013 in a bid to achieve its target of 100,000 Indian visitors to Israel.
This information was provided by Albert Benabou, Director, State of Israel National Tourism Office – India, on the sidelines of the recently concluded SATTE New Delhi. Israel had brought with it a delegation of six tour operators and the country’s only carrier to provide direct connectivity between India and Israel, El Al Israel Airlines, to showcase the destination’s offerings to the Indian travel trade through SATTE.
“We are standing at a tourism exchange of 50,000 between the two countries, an increase from 20,000 over the years, and are expecting more. Our main target will be the growing middle class segment of Indian travellers, and we will also focus on promoting our MICE offerings in particular,” said Benabou.
Speaking about their target for the coming years as far as the Indian market is concerned, benabou revealed that, bearing in mind the rapid growth seen from India, the Office’s aim is to welcome 100,000 tourists from India to Israel, and vice versa as well because, balance between the tourism numbers is essential for tourism to be successful. The two countries have had a relationship for 20 years, much of which we have wasted not tapping the tourism potential. We need to bridge that gap and that will be our focus going forward. The moment connectivity increases we will definitely see more traffic between the nations,” said Benabou.
He further revealed that the Office’s promotional activities will be focused on the B2B segment as educating the travel trade regarding tourism products of Israel.
“By the end of 2013, we will hopefully be well positioned in the B2B market. We also want to inform the trade here that we are open to promotion agreements, nonetheless on specifics. We had a promotion agreement in the past that has to be revised since it did not create the impact we were hoping for. The reviewed agreement will have a focus so we can realise our goals,” Benabou added.
Benabou stated that increasing connectivity between the two countries was of utmost importance as it has been marginalised for a long time. In addition, the destination plans to promote niche tourism offerings such as cycling tours, river tours, walking tracks around the country, desert visits and music festivals, among others.
Commenting on the importance of the Indian market, he revealed that Israel has a vision of operating in India like we do in America, with an office necessary in all the key markets across the nation.
“Participating in SATTE this year for us is a turning point because we have come with a regular capacity of what our ministry does around the world. We usually participate in 30-35 exhibitions around the world, and this is our first penetration into India for the same,” he concluded.
