More than 2,250 million Americans visited Israel in the 27 years since the State of Israel was established in May 1948, according to Israel Zuriel, Commissioner for Tourism, North America. Zuriel, the senior representative of the Israel Ministry of Tourism in the United States, reviewed the position of travel to Israel from the U.S. at a press briefing here. He pointed to four major market areas which are basic sources for North American tourism to Israel. “These consist,” he said, “of Jewish visitors, Christian visitors and participants in congress and professional tours.
“We are now undertaking an effort to make contact with every leader of a Jewish congregation urging them to organize annual pilgrimages to Israel,” Zuriel said. “In line with this I recently wrote 3000 rabbis in the United States in order to enlist them in this effort.” He noted that a significant number of organized tours to Rome scheduled for the Holy Year also include Israel. “This seems to be, I am pleased to note, evidence that interest in travel to the Holy Land is high among U.S. Catholics.” Zuriel also spoke of systematic efforts to increase the flow of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.
“Our plans are to establish direct communications with 60,000 Christian clergymen of all denominations so that they will lead groups and encourage pilgrimage,” he said. Zuriel noted that the majority of the U.S. tourists visited Israel in the last five or six years, making tourism a mainstay of the Israel economy with thousands of families being directly employed in the industry.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
