Israeli Tourism
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Monday, November 1st, 2010
The Catholicon (Greek Orthodox sanctuary) of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
One of the fun things that I do as I prepare to become a tour guide in Israel is practice! It helps me learn to plan a tour, make it flow seamlessly and learn such things as timing, reading the audience, use of visual aids and organization of material. So it is really a very necessary aspect that, while not an official part of my tour guide studies, I still take quite seriously.
A few weeks ago, I took two women around for a day-long walking tour of the Old City of Jerusalem (mostly). They were two friends, one of whom was Jewish and one of whom was Christian, though neither was particularly religious. The Christian was here on her first trip to Israel, while the Jewish woman lives here, though not in Jerusalem. My goal for the day was to expose them to the sheer wealth of history that fills Jerusalem, as well as show them the diverse cultures and religions that are found here. Ultimately, I wanted them to see what a beautiful, complex and historic city I live in. I thought it might be interesting and useful to describe the itinerary we had for the day.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Tour Diary | 2 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, architecture, Hezekiah's Tunnel, history, Holy Sepulchre, Ir David, itineraries, Jerusalem, Kotel, Mamluks, Stations of the Cross, Tayelet, Temple Mount
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Israel Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of Michael Feigin)
The news story that has most recently gotten all of the anti-Israel complainants in an uproar is this one, quoting Israel’s Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov as calling for a boycott on Israeli tourism to Turkey. This came in response to Israeli news reports that said Turkey had classified Israel as a threat to regional security (though apparently various reports used different terminology for the same apparent move by Turkey). The web has plenty of blog posts and I’ve seen tons of tweets in my Twitter feed that have made this seem like a horrible thing for Misezhnikov to have said.
My question: why all the uproar?
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Miscellaneous | No Responses »
Tags: Ministry of Tourism, Misezhnikov, Turkey
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
A screenshot of the new "iSrael" app at the iPhone app store.
I have said before that I am fairly pleased with the current direction that the Ministry of Tourism is taking. I can’t say I like every single thing they’ve done, but overall I think they are working very hard at increasing the numbers of tourists visiting here. They have stated their goal is to attract an extra 1 million tourists per year by 2012. And with tourism numbers here continuing their steady rise, it seems like they are accomplishing their goals.
But luckily, the Ministry is not just focusing on bringing tourists in, by removing entry visas and advertising around the world. They also apparently recognize that improving the tourist experience within Israel is equally important.
And so, in keeping with the forward-thinking nature of the Ministry’s social media campaigns, they have continued to leverage the technologies of the moment to improve the experience for incoming tourists. On Sunday, the Ministry launched iSrael — an app for the iPhone that is designed to enhance the Israeli tourism experience.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | No Responses »
Tags: iPhone, Ministry of Tourism, technology
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Inside one of the natural grottoes at Rosh Hanikra
In my last post of a few weeks ago, I asked for some advice in helping my friend Lara to plan a great itinerary for her first trip to Israel. Many of you here, and on my Facebook, made wonderful suggestions of things to do, places to go, and even food to eat. In total, Lara was here for 16 days, and I spent a large portion of that time with her. Your collective assistance was a great help, and I wanted to share with you the bulk of her trip, so you can see the kind of balance we included.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 2 Responses »
Tags: Akko, Ein Gedi, felafel, food, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Ir David, itineraries, Jerusalem, Rosh Hanikra, shakshuka, shwarma, Tel Aviv, tourism, wine, Yaffo
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Lake Kinneret / Sea of Galilee behind the palms
A good old friend of mine is finally making her first trip to Israel next week. She’ll be here for 2-3 weeks, and I am excited to be showing her around a lot, and helping her plan her time here. Someone else (a friend of a friend) contacted me to suggest places for her to visit when she comes here in the Fall. And many other times people ask me similar questions when they hear I am studying to become a tour guide.
Itinerary planning is a job and skill in itself. And it is a major task in the tour guiding profession. But it is not yet something which I have studied or have a lot of experience with. And yet, I am going to have to get started on it now to help Lara have an awesome fun time here! So while I’ve started to think about it, I’d love to hear from you guys as well.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 11 Responses »
Tags: Ein Gedi, history, itineraries, Jerusalem, religion, tourism
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Electric Cars by Renault being recharged at Better Place's Visitors Center
Many industrial facilities offer interested fans of their products tours of their production facilities. Probably the most common are wineries and breweries, and we have no shortage of either here in Israel.
But many places also have tours of facilities when the product is unique to that area. Whereas there may not be a ton of tours of ice cream production factories, many visitors to Vermont will pay a visit to the Ben & Jerry’s factory. Atlanta has the World of Coca-Cola. And does anyone go to Hershey, PA without paying a visit to Hershey Park? (Okay, some of these are more than just factory tours, but that’s how they all began!)
Well, Israel now has a new tour to add to this general variety, but it is also unique in many ways. It is not a food or beverage facility, and is a great advertisement for the high-tech, start-up style endeavor for which Israel has become so well known.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 2 Responses »
Tags: Better Place, business, environment, green, high-tech, Pi Glilot, Shai Agassi, Tel Aviv
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (photo in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons)
Many of you may have heard the public flap that occurred when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel arrived in Israel this week to celebrate the bar mitzvahs of his son and nephew. In case you haven’t, I’ll summarize.
While in Eilat, Emanuel and family ate a seafood dinner in a fancy restaurant, then passed the bill over to a representative of the Israel Ministry of Tourism to pay. Or did he? In a rapid response to the news story, the Ministry quickly denied the allegations.
So why am I raising this story here? I actually have two points to raise.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 2 Responses »
Tags: corruption, Ministry of Tourism, Paula Abdul, politics, Rahm Emanuel
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Brazilian capoeira and samba at IMTM to promote travel there.
Ever been to a trade show of any kind? Auto show, food industry convention, hotel and hospitality conference or energy industry gathering? Well, the International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) is a fairly standard example of this type of event.
I say this only because I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect before I attended it last Wednesday. I mean, I knew it would be a trade show, but I’d never been to one in Israel before. Plus, with a name like that, I wasn’t sure how much would be related to Israel travel in particular and how much would be geared towards tourism to other countries in the region. I also had no idea how relevant it would be for me, as a specifically Israeli tourguide-to-be.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 1 Response »
Tags: business, food, guide, IMTM, Israel, olive oil, tourism, wine
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
A tour group at the theater in Caesarea, Mediterranean in the background.
Finding a bit more time now, so hope to post some tour updates and more news stories soon. But just a quick summary for now. Tours that I’ve taken but not yet written about: Ein Gedi, southern Dead Sea area (Mt. Sodom), Modiin vicinity (Tel Gezer and stuff related to the Maccabees) and Sharon/southern Carmel region (Apollonia, Dor and Atlit).
And some of the class subjects I may want to discuss here: Geography and Geology of Israel (and how they relate to each other) and fauna. But first…
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Miscellaneous, Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: business, culinary tourism, IMTM, Israel, Market, Ministry of Tourism, Tel Aviv, tourism, wine
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Handshake photo taken from Wikimedia Commons. (In public domain.)
I don’t know about you, but I shake hands with people all the time, and I barely even think about it. Sure, I’ve heard the potential origins of the handshake as a sign of peace, indicating that neither person is holding a weapon. But in our society, shaking hands is as common as, well… a handshake. Most of us clasp hands with others multiple times on a daily basis.
But last week, a handshake that may or may not have taken place highlighted just how delicate and sensitive life can be in the Middle East. And a few days later, I received a comment on a blog post that I’d written entirely innocently, that drove this point home on a more personal level.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | No Responses »
Tags: diplomacy, history, Iran, Israel, Ministry of Tourism, Misezhnikov, Palestine, politics
