Jerusalem, 24 June 2012
  
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov today (24 June) signed a bilateral tourism agreement with his counterpart from India, Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, who is in Israel on a four-day visit at the head of a delegation that includes state ministers, members of parliament and senior state officers.
 
The two tourism ministers stated that their goal is to double the number of tourists traveling between the two countries within the next three years. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov noted that the way to achieve this, among others, is to open additional flights to destinations within India beyond Mumbai, such as Delhi, Calcutta and Goa. The two ministers intend to work with private airlines, each one in his country, in order to promote charter flights between the two countries.
 
India, which currently has 200,000 hotel rooms, needs to build another 200,000, noted Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, adding that India has adopted the G-20 declaration that the tourism industry is a central economic engine for growth. According to the Indian Tourism Minister, India understands that tourism increases the rate of employment among the working classes, women and people living in the periphery.
 
The ministers agreed to establish a joint working forum that will be comprised of representatives from both ministries in order to swiftly implement the decisions in the agreement. India is interested to learn from Israel ways in which to develop rural tourism and Israel underlined the import of adding new flight routes between India and Israel.
 
Some 40,000 tourists visit each year from India, injecting some $40million annually into the Israeli economy.
 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON INCOMING TOURISM FROM INDIA TO ISRAEL
 

Since the beginning of 2012, there has been an increase of about 30% in incoming tourism from India. If this trend continues, some 50,000 tourists are expected to visit Israel from India in 2012. India is the largest source country in Asia for incoming tourism to Israel, overtaking South Korea which held this position for many years. There has been a significant increase in incoming tourism from Israel in recent years, with double the numbers of tourists arriving in both 2010 and 2011 on the 2009 figures – 40,000 tourists in 2011.
 
The overall marketing budget for 2012 for the Far East (including India) totals NIS 6 million and, according to Tourism Ministry figures, about 160,000 tourists visited Israel from the Far East in 2011.
 
Given the significant and as yet unrealized potential that India represents as a rapidly growing tourism market (with a population of 1.21 billion), the Tourism Ministry has chosen to focus its Asia marketing activities on India. The ministry will open a representative office in Mumbai during the course of this year and invest about NIS 2.5 million in marketing activities with the goal of significantly increasing the number of incoming tourists who see Israel as a leisure and touring destination. The Christian communities in India, which number about 20 million, consider a visit to Israel as the realization of their religious beliefs and aspirations.
 
The Tourism Ministry is also working to ease the procedures in order to facilitate smoother and easier land and border crossings for the Indian tourist wishing to visit Israel. The ministry is also investigating the possibility of easing visa restrictions and the opportunities to increase air traffic which currently stands at 3 direct flights a week between Mumbai and Tel Aviv. The Tourism Ministry is of the opinion that cooperation between the countries is required in order to persuade the relevant airlines to realize their commitments within the airline agreements.
 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIAN TOURIST TO ISRAEL
 (SOURCE: THE 2011 TOURIST SATISFACTION SURVEY )
 
Religion
 37% of all tourists arriving from Israel in 2011 defined themselves as Catholic; 7% as Protestants and 9% from other Christian denominations; 5% as Muslim and 37% from other religious affiliations.
 
Income level
 28% of respondents defined their income level as above average; 71% as average and 1% as below average.
 
First time visit
 83% of respondents came to Israel for the first time with 17% arriving on a return visit.
 
Reason for visit
 48% of respondents gave the reason for their visit as pilgrimage; 30% came on business; 14% for sightseeing; 5% for conferences with just 1% arriving to visit family.
 
Accommodation
 93% stayed in hotels; 1% with relatives and 2% in youth hostels or rented apartments. Of those staying in hotels, 85% stayed in medium standard hotels with 12% responding that they stayed in superior standard hotels. 42% were on full board; 35% on BB basis and 23% on half board.
 
Age
 
58% of all incoming tourists from India in 2011 were in the age group 35-54; 11% within the age group 55-64; 19% were 25-34; 8% were under the age of 24 and 4% were over 65 years.