Israel's Tourism Industry Targets American Southerners, Christians
by Ed Thomas
October 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Israeli tourism official says a new office in Atlanta, Georgia, is designed to draw Christians from the Bible Belt and the rest of the southeastern United States for tours of Israel through one of America's busiest transportation hubs. According to Arie Sommer, Israel's Tourism Commissioner for North and South America, his agency has an ambitious, dual goal -- in addition to increasing the number of American tourists traveling to his country, he says Israel really wants to see more U.S. Christians visiting and touring the Holy Land.
"Our goal, actually, for the year 2009 is to bring to Israel and to host in Israel one million Americans," Sommer reveals. He says before the events of September 11, 2001, up to 50 percent of American tourists to Israel were Christians.
But after five years of America's war on terror and Israel's battles with the PLO, Hezbollah, and others, tourism to the Middle East has taken a hit. Only now is Israel's tourism industry beginning to be in a position to resume thriving, Sommer explains.
"Because of the change, because of things getting much better, we hope very much and we expect the Christian traffic to increase," the tourism commissioner notes. And the effort to increase tourism in Israel is now getting a boost, he says, from a new daily direct flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Tel Aviv.
"We believe very strongly that we can generate a lot of interest and [attract] a lot of visitors from the southern states to Israel," Sommer says. He points out that the opening of the new Atlanta branch office is calculated to raise the percentage of Christians among American tourists to his country from the current 35 percent to pre-9/11 levels.
The new Israel Tourism Office in Atlanta joins existing U.S. branch offices in New York and Los Angeles. Sommer says future plans include an office in Chicago as well.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
