INPROTUR’s Executive Secretary Ricardo Sosa met with Argentine Ambassador in Israel Sergio Urribarri and, along with the technical teams in both countries, they worked on defining the promotion strategies for the next few years and scheduled actions that include developing and offering new tourism products, identifying opportunities of the Israeli life and strengthening the actions started by President Alberto Fernández, aimed at improving air connectivity.
At the meeting, four interesting tourism products were identified, one of them aimed at attracting young tourists who take a 6-to-12-month sabbatical after completing their military service and before starting university to travel around the world. South America is one of their favorite destinations, so attracting these travelers is one of INPROTUR’s goals. It is worth noting that Argentina is the first South American destination chosen by Israeli travelers.
The wedding proposal in Argentina is another product, as well as strengthening the Kosher proposal in the food industry. And taking advantage of the strong presence of tango in Israel to promote the arrival of Israeli tourists in our country was also an item on the agenda.
Another key point was air connectivity. In spite of the geographical distance and the lack of direct connectivity, the goal is to boost the growth of the Israeli market, which has been lost in the last few years. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that President Alberto Fernández started certain actions at the beginning of this year to achieve air connectivity in the future by means of direct flights from Israel via Aerolíneas Argentinas or El Al Israeli airline.
As INPROTUR’s Executive Secretary Ricardo Sosa pointed out: “It is of paramount importance to coordinate the work with the Embassy in a market that can bring about significant benefits such as Israel. Argentina has plenty of possibilities to offer, not only because of the opportunities that we have identified in the Israeli market but also due to the World Heritage Sites in our country. There are plenty of varied and high-quality possibilities”.
He added that one of the future challenges, regardless of the current coronavirus context, is to recover all the space that Argentina has lost in that market, as inbound tourism from Israel has declined in the last 8 years. In 2011, the number of tourists reached 60 thousand and by 2019 it had dropped to about 45 thousand. In the same period, outbound Israeli tourism worldwide grew from 4,4M to 8,5M, thus doubling the number of travelers. It should also be highlighted that, when analyzing the various routes of arrival, land travel dropped from 40,000 in 2011 to nearly 25,000 in 2019. Likewise, air travel in the same period dropped from 18,000 to about 17,000.
On the other hand, the average spend per stay of Israeli tourists travelling by air declined from USD 2,085 in 2012 to USD 1,450 in 2019, whereas it almost doubled in the rest of the world.
“These are the challenges that Ambassador Urribarri and I have set, following the guidelines of Minister of Tourism and Sports Matías Lammens, taking into consideration short as well as mid and long-term actions”, Sosa added.
