All the news about Israeli tourism

The new tourist office in Beijing will join the other 14 tourist offices around the world. According to the Ministry of Tourism the new office in Beijing will open following the tourism agreement signed with China (Approved Destination Status agreement), which came into effect last September.  Group tourism packages from China are only possible once a country has received this official approval.  The agreement is expected to result in a significant increase in the number in Chinese tourists visiting Israel.

The new representatives will work in the coming year to broaden their activities with the Chinese tourist market, in order to show all of the options that Israel has to offer the potential Chinese tourist and to integrate the existing competition with different destinations on the heart of the Chinese tourist.  This activity includes among other things recruiting Chinese wholesale travel companies that will offer package tours to Israel, the preparation of a tour guide for Chinese travel agencies, support and assistance to Israeli travel agents to market tour packages to the Chinese and educational tours for Chinese travel agents and journalists.

Minister of Tourism, Ruhama Avraham, indicated that Chinese tourism has in the last 10 years exhibited a rapid growth and is still regarded as having big potential for further outgoing tourism.  “The Ministry of Tourism is preparing to realize this potential with the ending of the global recession and the recovery or global tourism – in both marketing and by removing obstacles and providing the tourist with a pleasant welcome to Israel.”

As a result the Ministry of Tourism has for the first time started a tour operators course in Mandarin Chinese, this is to ensure that the new guides learn content that is unique and relevant to the Chinese tourist, locations, interests and the preferred customs. The course will last for 5 months and will have 40 participants most with a Chinese background.  There will also be a number of Israelis participating, especailly those who already speak either Cantonese, Taiwanese or Japanese.  The participants who complete the course will be authorized to accompany Chinese and Japanese speaking groups only.