The Tourism Ministry launched last month a campaign to promote incoming tourism to Israel in the New York region, aimed at the culture, history and religion market. The campaign, with a budget of 9 million NIS, is based on a market survey carried out by the ministry to target and optimize marketing activities.

The campaign, with the slogan Israel – Beyond Belief, appears across different media, including TV; local newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times; trade magazines; billboards and a 1.5 million NIS internet campaign on search engines, content and banners.

Each channel will be examined for its effectiveness, with changes made as relevant. The campaign is also the lead item for the ministry’s Facebook page, in order to ensure consistent and significant exposure of Israel.

Tourism Minister Dr. Uzi Landau adds “For years, the United States has been the largest source country for incoming tourists. We attach great importance to the role of tourism in maintaining close bi-lateral relations and we will continue to work towards increasing the numbers of American tourists to Israel. Israel is a cradle of culture, history and religion and I am sure that every American tourist will find in Israel a source of inspiration.”

The campaign – a continuation of previous campaigns run by the ministry and targeted to this market segment in other main regions in the US in recent years – has proven itself as a significant factor in developing tourism with a high economic value for Israel. As a result of the market survey that the ministry commissioned last year in various markets within the States and as a result of marketing budget cuts, it was decided to focus promotional activities on the Greater New York region. Both the quantitative and qualitative research showed that this area, which accounted for the major incoming tourism traffic from the US, has the greatest potential for promoting culture, history and religion tourism to Israel. Advertising in the spring months influences the American tourist’s decision-making process for the latter months in the year and for the beginning of the following year.

The quantitative and qualitative research was carried out for the ministry by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency (LAPAM) in those areas of the United States where the ministry had recently run advertising campaigns, including the Greater New York area, the Greater Los Angeles area and South Florida. The research showed that the desire and readiness to buy the Israel tourism product was relatively low in the Greater Los Angeles area and South Florida, and pointed to New York area as the region in which to concentrate marketing activities.

The United States is the largest source country for incoming tourism to Israel. In 2012, 618,000 tourists arrived in Israel from the US, of whom about one-third came from the New York area.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)