All the news about Israeli tourism
2009-07-15 - Vol 22
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El Al signs cooperation with the TUI Group
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El Al has announced a cooperation agreement with French airline Corsairfly, owned by the TUI group, offering flights to the city of Montreal in Canada via Paris Orly Airport.
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Easy Jet: Ready for the competition on flights to Israel
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Easy Jet, the British low cost carrier which will start its service to Israel this coming winter commented that it was not frightened of the fierce competition on the London to Tel Aviv route. “We are the first low cost company on the route and our aim is to offer the lowest prices.”
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David Fattal completes purchase of Azorim Tourism
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The sale of Moriah Plaza owned by Azorim Tourism Ltd has been completed by the Fattal Hotel chain, belonging to David Fattal. Azorim Tourism was owned by Boymelgreen Capital Ltd and Azorim Investments at a rate of 25% and 75% respectively.
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Minister of Tourism to the US in attempt to boost tourism
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The Tourism Ministry will allocate 150 million shekel in 2009-2010 to promote tourism from the US and to position Israel as a preferred tourism destination.
Tourism Minister and Ministry Director General will leave Thursday on their first working visit to the US in order to strengthen tourist traffic to Israel.
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13% fall in passenger traffic in the first half of 2009
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Based on data from the Israel Airports Authority, since the start of the year, a 13 percent fall in international passenger traffic was recorded at Ben Gurion Airport. During June there was a 12.5 percent fall in passenger traffic, compared to June 2008. El Al recorded an 8 percent fall in passenger traffic between January and June.
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Arkia: Cooperation with US Airways on destinations in the USA
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Arkia Airlines has announced that it will operation regular flights from Paris to the United States; this in line with the agreement with American airline US Airways, which began operating flights to Israel in the last week. During this first stage, Arkia will offer 7 continuing flights from Paris to destinations within the United States.
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Sun d’Or cancels flights to Southern Russia as the dispute goes on
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Sun d’Or has announced that because of the refusal of the Russian authorities to provide suitable approvals, they have been forced to cease their planned flights to Sochi and Rostov in Russia until the 30th July. The head of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority, Giora Romm is currently in Russia with the aim of finding a solution to the problem.
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Continental: CEO visits to celebrate 10 years service in Israel
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Chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines, Larry Kelner will arrive in Israel for a 12 hour visit, in order to meet with economic chiefs and heads of aviation and tourism. Avi Friedman: "About 120,000 Israelis are members of Continental’s frequent flyer program."
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Air Canada ponder cancelling commission payments
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Air Canada recently requested the cancellation of the 7 percent basic commission. Educational Travel has learned that they were forced to retract this following clarification from the travel agents that legal steps would be taken on the issue.
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Slump in countryside holidays this summer
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The committee for tourism for the Moshav movement has reported a 45 percent fall in occupancy levels for rooms at moshavim in the north of the country. Chairman Moshe Zarchi: "The major fall has been recorded among couples, who have given up on romantic weekend breaks and the strictly orthodox families."
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The cost of hosting Maccabiah Games: 16 million shekels
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The cost of hosting 3,500 athletes for the 18th Maccabiah Games, which opened this week and will last for 10 days, totaled 16 million shekels. This is according to a report from Rafi Shelef Tourism (International) Ltd. Rafi Shelef, general manager of the company: “Despite the worldwide economic recession, an increase of 20 percent is expected in the number of participants, compared to the last Maccabiah in 2005.”
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20% fall in incoming tourism in 1st half 2009
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There was a 20 percent fall in the number of incoming tourists to Israel during the first half of 2009, compared to the same period last year. This was the report released by the Ministry of Tourism. Minister Misezhnikov: “We need urgently to resolve the aviation dispute with Russia, which could result in the collapse of incoming tourism from Russia and the loss of hundreds of millions of shekels in revenue per year.”
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