FORECASTS of a bumper year for tourism to Israel in 2000 are starting to come true as bookings build up for the millennium.
Israel specialist operators report that sales for coach tours in 2000 are up on this time last year as both pilgrims and non-religious Christians want to see where it all began.
Peltours managing director Stuart Lewis said:”It’s not a rush but bookings are steady.
“These are individuals who want a good holiday, but we know they also want the religious experience of going to Israel in 2000 as they are asking a lot of questions about the holy places that are visited on the tours.”
Pullman Holidays managing director Simon Blutstein added: “We have seen a 20% increase in bookings so far for 2000 compared to this year, and they are bound to increase, but all the demand is for escorted tours, not the beach.”
While many of the Christian sites are in Jerusalem, others are in Nazareth and dotted around the Sea of Galilee where you need to be on a tour or have a rental car to get to them.
Blutstein said bookings for 2001, which is correctly the 2,000th anniversary since the birth of Jesus, are even higher. “I believe that will be the best year for Israel. Bookings have started as pilgrimages have to be planned a year in advance.”
As the self-styled official destination of the millennium, Israel has been preparing for a massive influx of visitors in 2000 for the past four years.
The tourism ministry estimates it will attract up to 3.5m visitors from all over the world.
That is down from last year’s target of 4m, but still 1m up on the record achieved in 1995, and millions of dollars have been invested to try to make sure the country can cope with the numbers.
Hotel rooms have been added in Nazareth, where there was very little tourist-style accommodation, Jerusalem and the Galilee, and roads and parking areas around the key sites have been improved. Also, visits to sites are being carefully planned with local guides to prevent lengthy queues.
Israel Government Tourist Office UK director Amnon Lipzin said: “We want to make sure people are not waiting too long to get into a site, and the tourism authorities are helping organisers plan special events to entertain visitors in case there are delays.”
However, there are doubts about the effectiveness of the tourism ministry’s effort to drum up interest in Israel for 2000.
Longwood Holidays managing director Rafi Caplin said: “The ministry has appointed a committee that does not take any advice and keeps coming up with way-out ideas that we cannot sell.
“Our pilgrim department is doing well for bookings, but for other visitors we need regular, co-ordinated events such as a sound-and-light show on the same day each week through the year, and that has not been provided.”
Cosmos Tourama product manager Anne Robinson believes IGTO promotions have helped.
“The interest was already there but IGTO’s campaign has made people think about Israel in 2000,” she said.
Rather than rely on IGTO, WST Holidays has raised its marketing budget by 15% to £35,000 in the lead up to 2000, to produce millennium brochures and work with newspapers in London, Manchester and Glasgow to create interest among individuals.
Marketing manager Adam Huberman said: “We are putting together groups of 100-plus people, which brings the price for a week’s tour down to £299.
“Jerusalem is somewhere that everyone learns about and plans to go one day, 2000 is the ideal time and we are making it more affordable.”