Planning a religious pilgrimage to Israel with the help of AI may sound appealing, but it comes with real limitations. Generic platforms struggle with bias, context, and the sensitivities of faith-based travel.
That gap is what American-Israeli philanthropist Jack Gottlieb set out to address, turning a complex challenge into a focused tool designed specifically for religious journeys to Israel.
(Video: HolyLandTravel.ai)
Gottlieb, who founded World Jewish Travel as a digital platform to promote Jewish cultural travel worldwide, has now shifted his focus to Israel. His latest initiative, a new nonprofit called Abrahamic Pilgrimage, aims to make pilgrimage planning easier, more accurate, and more meaningful.
HolyLandTravel.ai was launched at the International Tourism Market (IMTM) in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, by Gottleib alongside US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The new platform, focused on Christian tourism to Israel, allows users to build a tailor-made pilgrimage itinerary in seconds. It then generates videos and podcasts that help users learn about the sites they plan to visit.
Gottleib fully funded the creation of HolyLandTravel.ai and partnered with a group of computer science students at Reichman University in Herzliya. The idea for the project began during COVID, when, after two years, the pandemic almost destroyed Israel’s tourism industry. When another two years of war followed, Gottlieb realized the project needed to move forward rather than wait.
Mainstream AI platforms have become the new travel agents, but they are not designed to understand the nuance and complexity of religious journeys to the Holy Land. Gottlieb wanted to simplify the experience while also vetting content with Christian travelers, ensuring it reflected their needs and expectations. He also added podcasts and videos to bring the Holy Land to life beyond text-based planning.
The initiative is entirely privately funded and nonprofit. It is free to use, and Gottlieb receives no compensation other than the satisfaction of helping to bring tourism back to Israel.
“I decided I had to do something for Israel,” Gottlieb said ahead of the launch. “I was doing cultural diplomacy. But Israel’s own tourism industry was obviously hurt. I knew that when the war ended, we would need tools to bring tourism back. So, I decided to focus on faith diplomacy.”
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Jack Gottlieb and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel
(Photot: HolyLandTravel.ai)
According to the Tourism Ministry, the majority of travel to Israel is Christian. During the seven-front war, however, tourism declined sharply, either because airports were closed or due to travelers’ security concerns.
Israel is a small country, Gottlieb noted, and even at its peak before the war, the tourism industry relied on fewer than 5 million visitors a year.
“Jerusalem is on the bucket list of nearly every Christian, Muslim, and Jewish person,” Gottlieb said. “If I could make the pilgrimage experience easy and immersive, I figured that would be a good thing. So, I started working on the project.”
To do that, Gottlieb sought the support of Reichman University, recruiting students to conduct research and identify the layers and priorities needed to program on top of ChatGPT. He then worked with evangelical Christian focus groups to ensure nothing was missing. When changes were required, they were made.
“We consult to get our information, and ChatGPT also consults its own information, and in the end, you have a much better experience,” Gottlieb explained.
Once an itinerary is built, users can click a button to generate a short podcast that includes a conversation about the journey with an AI guide. A video can also be created, along with a Google Maps itinerary that shows how to get from point A to point B.
“We give a sample video so you can see what you are going to do, and when you press another button, it creates the route,” Gottlieb said, noting that it is user-friendly for people of all ages.
Because Gottlieb does not want to be seen as commercializing the experience, he does not sell anything yet. Eventually, he hopes to connect the platform to TripAdvisor or Booking.com to make the transition from building an itinerary to booking travel smoother. He is also working on a new layer focused on denominations, allowing the itinerary to be tailored more precisely for evangelicals, Catholics, Baptists, and other Christian groups.
“I’m a nonprofit. I’m not selling you anything. If you go to TripAdvisor, it tells you what it has. If you go to Booking.com, it’s telling you what it has. I’m not doing that,” Gottlieb said.
Tourism officials say initiatives like this could play a meaningful role in Israel’s recovery.
“This initiative is a blessing not just for those in tourism but also for the country as a whole,” Stephen Rubin, director of tourism at the Jerusalem Development Authority, said. “Proactively reaching out to our friends, the millions of believers, and providing a platform directly connecting them to Jerusalem and Israel will eventually translate into a post-October 7 renaissance within pilgrimage tourism.”
Rubin said the revitalization of Christian pilgrimage tourism to Jerusalem will be central to the city’s economic recovery.
“For a city where tourism revenues comprise 11% of the municipality’s GDP, the reinvigoration of Christian pilgrimage will provide a huge boost and send an important message to the travel industry that things are quickly moving back to normal,” he said.
First published: 14:09, 02.03.26