French. Gratest potential for aliyah
צילום: איי פי
Sharp decline in French tourism to Israel
Israeli tourism sources express concern with slowdown of tourism from France as it drops 21% in 2007 compared to 2005 peak year. French agents say Israel doesn’t invest in Jewish sector
If the influx of French tourism into Israel last summer seemed promising, this “occupation” now seems temporary. Sources in the Israeli tourism industry expressed their concern Wednesday about the slowdown of tourism from France.
The year 2007 ended with a 21% drop in the number of entries from France compared to the peak year of 2005. This decline is significant in light of the 25% increase of tourist entries into Israel that year.
“Figures indicate a slowing down of tourism from France even through the first quarter of 2008,” a senior tourism industry official said Wednesday. He added that “the growth of tourism from France in the first three months of 2008 is only 4%, while other countries of origin show a double-digit figure.”
Leading French travel agencies complain that Israel is neglecting its French-Jewish sector. “They take the French-Jewish sector for granted and don’t invest efforts in marketing,” said Charles Silverman of the Voyage Discovery agency, one of the largest tourism wholesalers, who has been working with the Israeli market for 30 years.
The Tourism Ministry responded by saying that “we will continue to invest efforts in marketing to the Jewish sector, and work closely with travel wholesalers, the Lobby and the Jewish community to increase the volume of tourism from France. We will also renew our marketing activities with the French public, who have the greatest potential to make aliyah to Israel.”
