Iranian carrying photo of Jerusalem
Photo: Reuters
Iranians visit Tourism Ministry website
Some 3.5 million hits to Israeli ministry's website recorded in 2008, including 830,000 American surfers and 10,000 Iranians with largest number of hits from Middle Eastern countries
What are Iranian surfers looking for in the Israeli Tourism Ministry's website? The answer is unclear, but data from the ministry showed that Iranians were at the top of the list in the number of hits to its website by surfers from countries in the Middle East.
The number of Iranian visitors surpassed even the numbers from countries in the region that have peace agreements with Israel, such as Egypt and Jordan.
Nearly 10,000 hits from Iranian users were registered at the Tourism Ministry's website in 2008, followed by 8,394 hits from Egyptian surfers, 4,190 from Jordan, and 3,655 hits from the Palestinian Authority.
Surfers from Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Afghanistan also visited the website last year.
A total of 3.5 million hits were recorded in 2008 – a 100% rise compared to 2007.
According to the data, some 830,000 surfers from the United States visited the site, followed by 536,000 Israelis, 227,000 Italians, 220,000 French and some 150,000 Russian visitors.
The Tourism Ministry's website is a marketing site that offers surfers in Israel and abroad access to comprehensive and up-to-date information on accommodations, tourist attractions, events, special packages and more.
In 2009 the ministry plans to up its marketing strategy via the website in order to increase exposure for tourism to Israel.
The site is available in 12 languages: Hebrew, English, French, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
