Top tourist office shock closure leak

The Australian newspaper revealed through a leak, the shock news that the Israel Tourist Office, without question one of Australia’s best known NTO’s, is being closed down by the Israeli Government in a little more than a month.

Despite some of the most difficult destinational circumstances in any country in the world, Israel has enjoyed a doubling in the number of Australian tourists travelling to the country from 10,000 in 2003 to 19,700 in 2005, undoubtedly due to the efforts of the Israel NTO in Australia and in particular its Director, Dr David Beirman.

Dr Beirman has been told that his funding will end in March but he is hoping that the very strong links between Australia and Israel and the proactive lobbying and support of the travel industry in Australia may convince the Israel Tourism Ministry to change its mind.

He added, “after 2000, Israel’s tourism resurgence has been considerably better than the world average, so it is an unfortunate decision by the Ministry”.

Dr Beirman explained, “the reason for the closure appears to be to divert funds to assist in opening new offices in Brazil and Russia and unfortunately as a result the Ministry has decided to close Australia and South Africa”.

He said, “the Israeli Government is targeting the Catholic market in Latin America, because the Vatican has told Catholics they should go on a pilgrimage once in their lifetime to the Holy Land, so I agree that it makes perfectly good sense to open up an office in a Catholic country such as Brazil”.

Quite justifiably the question Dr Beirman is asking is why this should result in the closure of an office that is doing so well and especially as the costs of running the Australian operation are so small and marginal in the bigger global Israel NTO picture.

Dr Beirman said he recognised that tourism to Israel from Australia represented a little over 1% of the total travellers to the country and that from the Ministry’s point of view Australia is small fry, but also that he sees Australia as a country of huge potential.

The Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce had appealed to the Ministry to change its mind.  “Australia is one of Israel’s staunchest friends around the world and I think that anything that diminishes that relationship is bad for both countries,” Dr Beirman said.

The closure of the ITO comes just over three years after Israel’s Foreign Ministry closed its Consulate in Sydney.

Israeli ambassador to Australia Nati Tamir told the Australian Jewish News that he “highly regrets” the decision to close the tourism office.

The Mole will be providing an interview with Dr Beirman early this week and has also requested a discussion with the Head of the Israel National Tourist Office in Israel – we have not had a response as yet and will let you know if they are willing to speak with The Mole!

Report by The Mole