REEMA LOKESH – Mumbai
Sensing and studying the India outbound performance and positive developments, Israel has formalised its plans to set up a dedicated tourism office that will function out of Mumbai in the second half of 2012. The plan is to promote and position Israel as an exotic destination going beyond what it is famous for, namely pilgrimage. The plan is to position and sell the destination as a niche product with special unique offers such as wine and gourmet, spas, nature and adventure, shopping, nightlife, etc.
Speaking about this development in an exclusive to Express TravelWorld, Consul General of Israel in Mumbai Orna Sagiv revealed, “Israel has a host of unique offers and we feel the time is right to promote and position the same in the India market. Today India is the number one country for inbound tourism from the Asian region. The plan is to set up office in Mumbai as the Israel national carrier is also headquartered in Mumbai.”
The consulate office of Israel in Mumbai had recently worked on a pilot advertising campaign to promote the destination in correlation with leading travel companies in the country. The project was termed a success hence further strengthening the decision to start its India office. India recently took over Korea as the number one Asian region country for inbound tourism into Israel. Though business and trade ties are strong between the two countries, the focus will also be to strengthen tourism between the countries, especially in the leisure space. The country’s national carrier El-Al is also active in promoting tourism to Israel and will be working closely with the tourism outfit based in Mumbai.
