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May 13, 2005/Iyar 4 5765, Volume 57, No. 37
Tourism campaign targets Hispanic travel to Holy Land
TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LOS ANGELES - Israel has embarked on a new drive to boost travel to Israel by California Hispanics.
The campaign is a key part of a program outlined by Daniela Aharoni, the recently arrived director of the Israel Government Tourist Office for the Western United States.
With Hispanics/Latinos making up nearly half the population of Los Angeles County and one-third of the state of California, this group will be of ever- growing importance in coming years.
"We have found that Latinos are free-spending tourists, with a strong religious interest in the Holy Land," said Aharoni, sitting in her office with an expansive view of midtown Los Angeles.
Her jurisdiction includes 13 Western states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
She acknowledged that it's tougher to sell tourism to Israel in her territory than in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.
"You have a much longer travel time to begin with, and Israeli sunshine isn't that much of a selling point to people in California or Arizona," she said.
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, mayor of the town of Hayden and director of development at Valle del Sol, a nonprofit agency in Phoenix that deals with behavioral health, social services and leadership development, toured Israel under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange, which took 14 Hispanic leaders from around the United States to Israel in June 2004.
Israel's size took Galindo-Elvira by surprise.
"I thought the Holy Land is huge, and it's really tiny," said Galindo-Elvira.
He said the lengths to which Israel goes to ensure the security of travelers and residents is "eye opening. ... Everything is about security in Israel, whether you're going into a store or into a cafe, security is always in the forefront."
After a disastrous slump in tourism to Israel during the past four years - the Palestinian intifada scared away many tourists - the statistics are beginning to look better.
In 2000, the last "normal" year, a record-breaking 2.7 million tourists arrived in Israel. Two years later, the figure had plummeted to 206,000, before rising to 379,000 in 2004.
If the situation in the Middle East doesn't get drastically worse, Israel expects a total of 1.7 million tourists in 2005, 1.9 million in 2006 and 2.1 million in 2007.
Contributing Editor Hank Neyer contributed to this article.
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