Open Jerusalem for tourists. And not just the Old City

Jerusalem is known as a city of three religions and one priceless relic. But it’s more than that! It is a great cultural center, which can offer many interesting and exciting activities. It also has all the essentials for business tourism development. Representatives of 13 hotels and 2 airlines (Israir and El Al) have come to Moscow to talk about modern Jerusalem, the one outside the walls of the Old City. They are taking part in a forum called “Jerusalem in the world of tourism”, organized by the Ministry of tourism of Israel and the Administration of development of Jerusalem. Executives and top managers of over 160 tour operators and travel agencies took part in the forum and in the workshop.

The forum was opened by the council of tourism of the Israeli embassy in Russia Neta Briskin-Peleg, who is also the director of the department of the Ministry of tourism in Israel in Russia and CIS countries. She said: “It’s impossible to spend one night in Jerusalem and get a complete feeling of the city’s energy. But in order to truly understand its potential, travel agencies should get the latest and most relevant information. Because the more useful and up-to-date information they have, the more people find out about Jerusalem and will be eager to pay a visit”.

To reinforce this statement, deputy mayor of Jerusalem Masha Novikova and head of the State Company of tourism development in Jerusalem Ilanit Melkior have conducted a workshop called “The useful and the interesting about Jerusalem”.

There’s no doubt that the modern Jerusalem is popular with Russian tourists. But still it is viewed primarily as a city, notable only for its biblical landmarks. The choice of guided tours differs from one tourist to the other, thinks the head of the Israel department of “Solvex Travel” Natalia Alpatova. She divides the tourist flow into three nominal segments. The first type of tourists is the “first-timers”. They try to explore the most significant historical and religious landmarks. The second type of tourists has almost the same objective but for a different reason - they are not sure that they will be able to come back to the holy land. And at last, there are people, who have already been here once and are planning to visit again. It is they, who want to explore the modern city with all it can offer. “Anyhow, Solvex offers itineraries for different needs. We have tours that cover the modern Jerusalem as well as classic tours, which center on religion and history” – said Mrs. Alpatova in an interview to RATA-news.