The Ministry of Tourism advised that their planned target is to strengthen the incoming tourist flow from North America to Israel, weakened as a result of the global economic crisis and the recent operation in Gaza. "The marketing campaign in North America is part of the the intense campaign which the Ministry of Tourism is about to begin in the next few days, targeting Germany, Russia, Italy, France with an addition of another 26 million shekels. This is to show that Israel a safe and attractive destination for tourism" explained a spokesman from the ministry.
Members of the Tourist Ministry are planning meetings with community leaders, members of the media and opinion formers in the Christian world, at the annual conference of the Christian communicators (NRB) held in Nashville, Tennessee. More than 6,000 members of the Christian media are expected to attend the convention, among them major television and radio stations, opinion makers and religious leaders who will appear in front of an audience of millions of viewers from around the world.
Director-general of the Ministry of Tourism, Shaul Zemach said that "the operation in Gaza, the global economic crisis and the competition created between countries over the potential tourists, has created a new reality. In the coming months the Ministry of Tourism and the Treasury will work together to increase the marketing budgets of all of the major countries contributing to incoming tourism to Israel."
It should be pointed out that North America stands in first place in tourism to Israel with 700,000 tourists visiting during 2008, an increase of about 16% compared to 2007. With 50% of those tourists being Christian Evangelists 
