Meet the new tourists to Israel

Dozens of Chinese tourists are checking out the huge buffet spread, in most cases passing on the cheeses and raw veggies and opting instead for the more familiar cooked eggs.

On the other side of the room, a group of Indonesian tourists is sitting around a table engaged in lively chatter. Their breakfast plates are largely untouched, and the excitement starts when a woman retrieves a bag of exotic-looking snacks from under her seat and passes them around.

For Israeli hotels, adapting menus to suit the tastes of guests like these – travelers from distant lands not typically seen in these parts, at least not until quite recently – has become quite the challenge.

Many of these guests are not exactly enthralled by the world-famous Israeli breakfast, which is a rather sobering experience for Israel’s hoteliers. But at the same time, these new visitors are keeping the local tourism industry above water these days.

Meet the new tourists flocking to Israel’s shores. They’re part of an emerging new class of world travelers from places like Angola, Congo, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Malaysia and Mozambique.

And they’re prompting the government and the local tourism industry to scramble to adapt.

Meet the new tourists to Israel  Religion, high tech and politics

For some tourists, it’s the religious sites that are the main draw to the Holy Land. For others, it’s Israel’s high-tech prowess and agricultural finesse. For yet others, it’s an opportunity to get a first-hand view of places they hear about on the nightly news.

At one time Israel’s tourism industry relied on two key markets: white Christian pilgrims and Jews.

No longer: Incoming tourism from Asia, specifically China and India, as well as Africa has skyrocketed in recent years. Although still a small fraction of the total, it’s accounting for an increasing slice of the pie.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, tourists from China to Israel totaled 33,000 in 2014, more than triple the 9.800 in 2000. Almost 35,000 tourists from India visited Israel last year, twice the 15,900 of 2000.

Another 26,700 came from Indonesia – a country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations – nearly three times the 9,800 in 2000.

The numbers from Africa aren’t that large in absolute terms but are rising rapidly. Tourist arrivals from African countries listed in the “other” category (all countries aside from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and North Africa) totaled 17,000 last year, compared with 9,000 in 2000.

Perhaps even more significant is that unlike the traditional markets of North America and Europe, these new markets were hardly affected by Israel’s 50-day war with Gaza this summer, when large swaths of the country were under constant rocket barrage.

“Ever since July, the tourism industry has been in a state of crisis,” reports Oded Grofman, deputy director-general of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators’ Association.

“But quite incredibly, those countries where Israel requires visas – China, India and Africa, primarily – have been virtually untouched. In fact, tourism from China grew 30 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year.”

Grofman attributes this behavior to a relative lack of engagement with events in the Middle East.

“They don’t follow the news in Israel every day, like many American Jews do,” he says. “And that probably explains why they’re less sensitive to what’s going on here, and why American Jews are more likely to cancel their trips here than they are.”

Meet the new tourists to Israel

Full Story (Haaretz)   h/t Janglo