Sino wave

September 22, 2008 - 7:32 PM by Harry

A Chinese tourist in Jerusalem's Old CityMuch is constantly being written about how tourism to Israel is on the rise, but nearly all of the hoopla focuses on the Western European and North American markets. East Asians in Israel are usually here as foreign laborers, but a recent report by China View cites a growing trend of Chinese tourists to Israel.

Officials at the Israeli Ministry of Tourism ought to be drooling over this potential, given that the Chinese populace is currently estimated to be numbered at well over 1.3 individuals. So far, 2008 has shown a 45% increase in Chinese tourist arrivals here, and Israeli officials are aiming for a grand total of 15,000 Chinese visitors by the end of December.

It’s estimated that about 50 million Chinese tour in Israel’s neck of the woods, but very few of these actually make it to Israel. “We need to prepare to absorb some of that,” Israeli Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham-Balila announced at a press conference in China in early September.

The Chinese government has approved Israel as an acceptable destination for its citizens, paving the way for the first-ever organized Chinese tour group, of 80 people, to land later this week. China Air is also supposedly looking into the feasibility of launching a regular flight route between the two countries.

And the list of progress fronts on the bureaucratic level goes on….

The preparations to receive the Chinese tourist and adapt the tourism product to meet their particular needs include training Chinese-speaking tour guides, chefs in hotel restaurants, recruiting Chinese-speaking employees in the hotel and tourism industries, translating informational material, maps, brochures into Chinese, as well as providing courses to employees in the tourism industry on the unique aspects of Chinese culture.

Image courtesy Yuen-Ping aka YP from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , • Category: A New Reality, Business, General, Travel 

Comments

6 Comments on Sino wave

  1. David-Joe on Wed, Sep 24th 2008 1:13 AM

    2. Question is whether an Israel will even exist in the next few years for anyone to tour given that Iran is not likely to be stopped in its endeavor to obtain nuclear weapons.

    Certainly I have put my return to Israel on hold and until Iran is stopped the future does look terribly bleak for Israel.

    And this view is now being heard on American talk radio. Along with the disgusting speech by the Iranian leader in New York City to day – and the world and Israel does nothing……

  2. Haveil Havalim #184 A Barbarian Roars Again « A Barbaric Yawp on Sun, Sep 28th 2008 9:03 AM

    3. [...] Harry discussed the wave of Chinese tourism in his post Sino wave. Jameel covered the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. In my town we have a special method for dealing with terrorists. It involves using our broadswords. [...]

  3. Batya on Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 3:53 PM

    4. My neighbor said that she’s thinking of polishing her Chinese dialects.

  4. leadership on Sun, Oct 26th 2008 10:44 PM

    5. leadership…

    Again, there are different types of leadership, but the only worthwhile and long- lasting styles don’ t involve tricks and distrust. If your followers get a whiff of any kind of deceit, you’ ll lose……

  5. Israelity » The tourist cycles on Mon, Nov 3rd 2008 8:49 PM

    6. [...] The Israeli government’s recent aggressive courting of various niche tourist markets has targeted the Chinese and the gay, and now officials seem bent on attracting the cycling crowd. [...]

  6. Beijing gets an Israeli tourist office | ISRAELITY on Fri, Mar 13th 2009 9:09 AM

    7. [...] all part of the new tourism partnership between China and Israel, formalized this past fall. As I wrote back then…. Officials at the Israeli Ministry of Tourism ought to be drooling over this [...]

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