In 2010, India was in first place in the ranking of source countries for incoming tourism to Israel from Asia, with more than 40,000 tourists, displacing Korea from the top slot after several years.
The number of tourists from India rose 75% compared with 2009.
Statistics for January through July of 2010 showed that the average tourist expenditure totaled $1,091, whereas the average Indian tourist spent $1,364. The income from this tourism in 2010 totaled about NIS 200 million. 87% of these tourists arrived in Israel for the first time, with a quarter of them traveling on business, and the remainder on pilgrimages.
All countries in India and the Far East registered an increase in 2010, with about 160,000 tourists in all (63% more than 2009). 38,412 came from Korea, 17,763 from Indonesia and 17,345 from China.
As a result of the increase in tourism from India and the Far East, the Tourism Ministry has increased the budgets for marketing activities in India to over NIS 1 million in order to reach the target of 50,000 tourists in 2011. The overall marketing budget for Asia and the Far East in 2011 is NIS 6 million.
On February 18th, the Tourism Ministry will participate for the first time in the OTM international tourism fair in Mumbai.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said that in the past year, the Tourism Ministry focused significant marketing activities on emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Poland and Ukraine. Misezhnikov said, "In the last year, we have identified a new interest in Israel as an attractive and quality tourism destination among these markets and we will work to increase our presence there.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 13, 2011
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