Israel NTO Director responds to office closure

Dr David Beirman, the Director of the Israel National Tourism Office in Sydney today responded to the recent announcement that the Israel National Tourist Office in Sydney was to close.

He also responded to an interview by The Mole with Mr Rami Levi the Israel National Tourist Office senior executive in Jerusalem charged with running Israel’s overseas tourism offices that the closure of their office in Sydney, in which Mr Levi said that Israel was not pulling out of Australia but actually a regrouping, that Ernst & Young had been commissioned to undertake a full international review of all overseas offices and the closure of the office in Sydney was partly as a result of that, but also because the Australian visitor figures were too small to justify the expenditure at this time, albeit very small.

Dr Beirman, the Director of the Israel National Tourism Office in Sydney revealed that he had not been approached by Ernst & Young for his views on the relevance of the Australian operation or market.

He also said, “Although our operating budget is small, we value add by our involvement in partnership activities such as EMTA.”  “I am certain that this and other activity has not been taken into account”.  “We contribute a small portion of the $50,000 it costs to run Eastern Mediterranean Seminars which reach an average of 700 agents per annum, making an excellent forum for us to deliver a tourism industry message on Israel.”   “The Seminars are taking place very shortly and are practically a sell out throughout Australia, which reflects the tremendous Australian interest in Eastern Mediterranean countries including Israel.” 

“Having an effective NTO is not always the number of dollars spent but what you do with those dollars and our success in growing tourism from Australia to Israel is attributed to highly effective use of resources”. 

“I fully appreciate that the Ministry quite rightly wants to place its resources where it will reap the most benefit”.  “What may not be so fully understood is that while numbers of tourists to Israel from Australia and New Zealand are relatively small in global terms, the per capita spend and length of stay are amongst the highest in the world”.  “In other words, the qualitative measurements of Australian tourists to Israel are very high.”  

“Marketing Israel also effectively requires a high level of ongoing personal engagement with consumers and the travel industry alike, especially in Australia and the greatest strength of the Australian office has been in its ability to network with the Australian travel industry and the communities with a genuine interest in Israel, on an ongoing basis”.  “This takes vast local knowledge which is not rapidly acquired when a non-local person tries to do this”. 

“I have always appreciated the fact the Israel Ministry of Tourism has supported our office for 12 years, including in that time, some of Israel’s most challenging times for tourism, but it is very unfortunate that at a time when tourism from Australia to Israel is on a significant upswing, especially by global standards, that the Ministry is closing a highly effective office”. 

I appreciate that the Ministry’s decision is not and never has been a criticism of me or the job done by this office but I believe that Australia as one of the world’s largest tourism generating countries should continue to have the benefits of an Israel Tourism Office”.

Report by The Mole