Israel to launch e-visa program, starting with India market
Welcomes 6,03,600 global tourists and 6,500 Indian arrivals from January to July 2024.
The remarkable resilience of Israel’s tourism revival spirit is already emerging from the shadows and is truly worth noting. Amruta Bangera, Director of Marketing at Israel Ministry of Tourism shared about the way forward during an exclusive interaction with T3.
“The market for Israel is growing, and India is the one such market that has really seen boom. We had around 41,800 tourists from India till September 2023, which was around 65,100 in 2019. From January to July 2024, Indian visitor numbers to Israel is 6,500. Globally, Israel welcomed 6,03,600 tourists for the same period without promotions. Amidst all the apprehensions such as whether travel is happening in Israel or not, numbers are growing and speak for themselves. Surprisingly, 50% of the Indian traffic comes from South India alongside Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad, Kolkata”, expressed Bangera.
She further emphasized on India market, added, “India is the most important market for us being in the top 4 markets where US and UK are in top two, followed by India and Philippines from Asia. We have done a survey recently that speaks that Indians are very prone to Israel and are very positive to travel.”
To educate travel trade about Israel, Bangera mentioned to have started conducting webinars, seminars, in-house presentations to change the perspectives. The market segment that is on rise is Pilgrimage taking a share of 48% approx.
When enquired about a static mindset regarding Israel as solely a pilgrimage destination, Bangera added that this a by-default product that people are exploring. Apart from pilgrimage sites, they also extend to explore other aspects of Israel. “We are planning to promote pilgrimage in a way that suggests that even if one comes to Israel for the same reason, what else can be exciting to be explored. We are pushing the trade partners to craft MICE itineraries, agricultural tours, and other options for individuals who wish to travel to Israel”, added Bangera.
Bangera also highlighted that Tel Aviv in Israel is a non-stop city that never sleeps. “For India, being a young market, Tel Aviv is something that has everything to keep the pub crawlers or nightlife lovers engaged”, Bangera mentioned, “there is nightlife in Jerusalem too which most people don’t know about”.
On the side of connectivity, “Currently the Air India connection is suspended, but it was never pulled out, we were at a profitable and most-traveled sector, one will not find tickets because the sector had always been booked out, not just from India-Israel but also from Israel-India. But they plan to start again, and a lot of airlines looking at Israel now with positivity.”
Sharing on visa processes, “This has been the major concern that we have, it takes around 10 working days for an application to run through checklists and approval. To encourage more travellers, we are planning for an e-visa program specific to India market and India would be the first country that we be starting from. We are pushing really hard to get this onboard, and working to run the pilot program, expecting the pilot program to run by end of this year.”
