The future of Israeli tourism online?
The Kinzy family from their Facebook page
Who are the Kinzy’s and why are they so important to the future of Israeli tourism? The Kinzy family of four, from Bulverde Texas – along with another couple from New York – were chosen from nearly 600 applicants to participate in an all expenses paid two-week vacation in Israel. The catch: the lucky winners have to post pictures, videos and status updates to Facebook and Twitter.
The social media campaign was developed by New York advertising agency Bodden Partners and is being paid for by the Israel Tourism Ministry. The result is oddly compelling, in a voyeuristic kind of way. I don’t know the Kinzy’s, but it’s fun to watch them experience Israel for the first time and document it all in public, in the same way that people can’t turn off Big Brother and other reality television. Only this time it’s for a good cause.
The Kinzy’s were in Israel during the Passover holiday: one of their posts reads “we sure do love matzoh brie.” There are 40 photos from the family’s trip to the Galilee and another 37 snapped at the Dead Sea. There are also a number of YouTube videos – real down home stuff like visiting the Western Wall and eating at a steakiya.
The posts are understandably ebullient – not only did the Tourism Ministry pay for the trips, but a film crew followed the family around in order to make a post-visit commercial. To their credit, there’s no subterfuge: the “welcome” screen on their Facebook page clearly indicates that this is not just a family who “happen” to be posting about a trip to Israel.
The effect, unfortunately, may not be as extensive as the campaign promoters would have hoped. Only 345 people “liked” the Kinzy’s page (the other winners – Arthur Rollin and Caitlin McNamara – had slightly more, at 427 likes). But it’s a creative approach to harnessing the power of social media, exactly what one would expect coming from a country as “wired” as Israel.
Foto Friday – Viewing Israel with Rafael Ben-Ari
Filed under: Art, design, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Picture of the Week, Travel
Rafael Ben-Ari is a noted Israeli photographer and educator with over 20 years experience. He’s worked for Israeli and international newspapers and magazines, traveled extensively and his photographs has been presented at exhibitions and countries around the world.
Ben-Ari also runs Israel Photo Tours, which offers one-on-one private photography workshops and lessons in Israel. These are day tours, says Ben-Ari, “for photographers on all levels who are serious about their craft and wish to improve their skills while seeing Israel.”
Ben-Ari’s experience with cameras ranges from analog 35mm, digital, and SLR to panoramic and underwater cameras. Light is essential to his work and on location, he makes use of both artificial and available light and light. His students, he states, “learn the art of using light to capture the true essence of Israel”.
He suggests various tour itineraries, such as the ancient, sun-washed city of Acre for those who love the picturesque…
© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
The dusty Negev desert for those interested in archeology and nature…
© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
Jerusalem, the city central to Judaism…
© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
The places holy to three monotheistic religions…
© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
And for a change of pace, the beaches, sun and fun of Tel Aviv.
© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
There are a lot more wonderful pictures to view on the Israel Photo Tours website, along with contact information, itineraries and testimonials.
Open door policy
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, News
New immigrants arrive on a Nefesh B'Nefesh flight.
2010 saw record-breaking tourism to Israel as well as a 16% rise in the rate of immigration to the country. Good news indeed, unless you’re stuck in a traffic jam on the Ayalon Freeway wondering where all these people came from.
And even then, you’d have be a pretty major Scrooge to complain. After all, it’s why Israel’s here, isn’t it? More than 19,000 people move to the country in 2010, well up from 2009, according to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry and the Jewish Agency for Israel reported jointly on Tuesday.
And the surprise is that they’re coming at a younger age – an average of just below 30 – and many are coming from Western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland. According to Ruth Eglash’s story on the report in The Jerusalem Post, the largest group of immigrants – 40% – still came from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Germany, with 7,700 people.
Other immigrants came from as widespread locations as Malta, Japan and Rwanda, China, Monaco, Japan, Hong Kong, Honduras, and Malawi.
South American countries showed the biggest leap in immigration with Jews from the troubled community in Venezuela increasing their numbers by 280%, from 38 people in 2009 to 150 people in 2010. As far as English-speaking immigrants, a total of 3,980 olim arrived here from North America, an increase of 6% over the previous year’s 3,767; from the UK there was a drop, 760 people made aliya compared to 853 in 2009; and 1,470 South African olim arrived in Israel this year, an increase of 8% from 2009’s 1,233.
While it’s the Jews making aliya, it’s the non-Jews who are bolstering the number of tourists to the country. 69% of all incoming tourists in 2010 were Christian, 23% were Jewish, and the remainder either from other religions or with no religious affiliation.
According to Tourism Ministry figures, 38% of the visitors defined the purpose of their trip as pilgrimage, 15% said it was for a holiday and leisure and 13% for touring and sight-seeing. A total of 69% of visitors defined the purpose of their trip as tourism.
The most visited sites included the Western Wall (77%), the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem (73%), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (61%), the Via Dolorosa (60%) and the Mount of Olives (55%).
Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov said that the satisfaction level of tourists visiting Israel was also very good, with the country as a whole scoring 4.3 out of 5 in service satisfaction surveys conducted by the ministry.
The big victory will be seen if this year’s new immigrants to the country also give 4.3 scores on their absorption process. Welcome, new countrymen and tourists alike! Just watch out for the Ayalon during rush hour.
Foto Friday – Olives take center stage
Filed under: Business, coexistence, Environment, Foto Friday, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Social Justice, Travel
The humble olive finds itself in the eye of a political storm this year with reports of violence and vandalism from all sides. (Perhaps the fairest assessment of the situation comes from a new Oxfam report which puts the blame squarely on… well… everyone, which is kind of refreshing). Meanwhile, the fruit of the Olea Europaea tree is ripening and olive-picking activities – also on all sides – are at their peak.
The annual Galilee and Golan Olive Branch Festival started last week and features two weekends of activities for tourists to Israel’s northern region. The festival, a joint initiative of the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, the Galilee Development Authority and the Israel Olive Board is being held under the slogan “A Tribute to the Olive in Different Cultures”.
Activities include visits to olive presses, workshops, hikes, cycling tours, spas and gourmet eating. In addition, an Open House initiative offers visitors a glimpse into the lives of Galilee residents – Jews, Arabs, Druze, Circassian – including traditional food, music and crafts.
Hananya Farm is one of the country’s major producers of olive oil. Located in the Western Galilee, it is both the headquarters of the Olive Board and one of the festival’s four information centers, offering a wide range of workshops and activities.
These include picking and pressing the olives in an old-fashioned press, guided olive oil tasting, explanations about the olive harvest, an arts and crafts fair, farmers market and musical performances beneath the olive trees. Guided hikes (many with KKL-JNF guides), cycle and jeep tours are also available.
A few words about the Olive Board. A statutory body representing the interests of Israel’s olive producers, it sets standards for olive oil quality and production. In recent years it has adopted an additional aim: promoting the health benefits related to olive oil consumption. Their website contains a range of information, from the history of the olive in Mediterranean culture to the varieties of olives grown in Israel, like Barnea, which was bred specifically for modern olive and olive oil production methods. Truth be told (and it’s worth reading the Oxfam report with this in mind) stone presses are nice for promotional festivals and niche markets but that’s not really how this stuff gets made – or makes it – in the mass market.
Foto Friday – 3D Israel
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Religion, Travel
Writing about the 3D Israel doesn’t do this site justice. Neither does showing a few still images of what is essentially a dynamic online experience; with just a few clicks, users can experience panoramic 360 degree tours of Israel. How fun is that?!
The most popular visits to the site are, of course, to well-known tourist attractions. Old Jaffa’s newly renovated main square, for example. (Click on the link or the picture for the full effect).
Or the Eilat underwater observatory.
But there are lesser-known sites as well, such as the machtesh, a unique crater formation at Mizpe Ramon.
There are holy sites as well, such as the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. The 360 degree rotation allows viewers to see the church from one side…
…to the other.
3Disrael’s virtual tours require Adobe Flash player 9 or higher (free download at www.adobe.com). Navigation is very simple. To zoom in or rotate, just point the arrow icon in the direction you want to go and left-click on the mouse button.
The tours are produced by ByTech which, since 1999, has been offering digital imaging services to tourist sites and, more recently, to hotels and restaurants (in case you want to “try before you buy” — at least virtually!).
The most recent tour on the site is the Tel Aviv Musix festival, which took place last month.
The festival was also documented by photographer Mehman Asadov who’s posted two collections about the event on YouTube. The background music sets the festival mood. Enjoy!
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