Preparing for rehabilitation of tourism in north
Ministry of Tourism preparing plan for returning visitors to north. Galilee Development Authority coordinating future vacations for Diaspora Jews – when peace comes
The cannons are roaring and in the tourism sector they are already thinking about the day after.
Minister of Tourism, Isaac Herzog, instructed on Monday to allocate NIS 2 million (roughly USD 450,000)of the Ministry's budget for a preliminary marketing campaign to encourage tourism to the north.
The campaign, which will start immediately at the end of the security events in the area, will also be financed in part by hotel and tourism associations.
In parallel, the Ministry of Tourism is attempting to estimate the economic damage incurred on the sector and is testing a series of strategic steps for marketing the north the day after the fighting is over.
A remedial marketing strategy will be presented to the minister of the treasury and the prime minister for separate government budgeting. The extent of the budget is to the tune of tens of millions of shekels.
Sources in the Ministry of Tourism claim, based on past experience, that internal tourism to the north will be affected in the short term, and its recovery will be almost immediate on the condition that no physical damage to tourism infrastructure in the area will be caused.
The presidents of Jewish federations and organizations around the world are also requesting to aid the tourists in the north. The Galilee Development Authority has offered to put together a list of tourism business owners willing to sell Diaspora Jews vacation packages to be redeemed in the coming year.
Payment of the future vacation will be made upon purchase and will be transferred to the business owner.
According to estimates of the director-general of the Galilee Development Authority, Moshe Davidovich, thousands of vacation packages will be sold this way, and the immediate revenues will balance business owners' current cash flows.
