Fili’s world

Israel, as usual, is highly optimistic, and the Chinese tourists are the just what the sleepy tourism market in Israel needs to reinvent itself.

Ynet has more on the issue with “The Chinese are coming” (The Hebrew article can be found here) :

According to new agreement, Israel to be approved by Chinese government as tourist destination. Despite expected rise in number of tourists, tourism minister says there still need to improve infrastructure

Danny Sadeh

If all goes well, soon there will be buses and buses of Chinese tourists traveling through Israel. A new agreement between the Chinese and Israeli governments is to be signed in the next week, declaring Israel an approved tourist destination by the Chinese government. Following this announcement, China Air, China’s largest airline, is re-examining the operability of commercial flights between Israel and China.

The Israeli Tourism and Foreign ministries have been working the last few years to get Chinese approval as a tourist destination, one of a few destinations that have been approved by the Chinese Government.

The agreement is to be signed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for Israel, and by the administrator of the Chinese Tourism Office, the equivalent of the Tourism Ministry in Israel.

Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham-Balila had returned from a week-long work trip to China, and at the end of the month, two delegations from the Chinese Tourism Office are expected to arrive in Israel to explore cooperation methods with local tourist elements. […]

"Every year, some 50 million Chinese visit the area close to Israel, and we need to prepare to absorb some of that", said Minister Avraham. According to her, the agreement would ease the issue of entrance visas to both countries and has a huge potential for increasing tourism in Israel.

In preparation for the increase in Chinese tourists, the tourism minister has announced the opening of an official branch in Beijing. It was also agreed that the Chinese Tourism Office would help Israel locate students that can be employed as guides for Chinese groups visiting Israel.

According to the minister, while in china, she had met with several local entrepreneurs who brought up the idea of opening several authentic Chinese restaurants, with food that Chinese are used to eat.

"The moment we sign that agreement, we become a preferred country" said Avraham, adding that "this will allow Chinese travel agents to sell packages to Israel, something that they could not do earlier. In addition this will lead to an increase in flight traffic between the two countries, so much so that more airlines would be needed".  […]

I think it will be a while till we’ll be able to see the first real wave of Chinese come to Israel, but I like the spirit of things. Though not as religious as other travelers, the Chinese are stereotyped to be interested in history and culture and even maybe enjoy a slight aroma of danger and adventure, and Israel can deliver on most of those.

It was about two years ago that I mentioned an article about Israel’s readiness for the “incoming Chinese tourist” :

YNet covers the problem with a funny quote from the Chinese ambassador in Israel that gives a hard blow to the “Israeli face” - titled “Official: Israeli Chinese food awful”