Readers of the travel section of the New York Times were startled by an advertisement of El Al Israel Airlines offering a 62-day African tour, including Egypt, for $3, 703. The African tour was one of eight from New York offered in a seven-column advertisement described as El Al’s “But-I-Don’t-Want-To-Go-To-Israel” tours. Another El Al offering included Lebanon in a 19-day tour for $659.
Several readers of the paper called the JTA to ask whether it was correct that the Israeli airline was offering tours to Egypt. A spokesman for El Al confirmed that Egypt was one of the points on the El Al African de-luxe tour but explained that El Al did not fly into Egypt itself. Passengers desiring to include Egypt in this tour are transferred by El Al to other airlines permitted to land there.
The advertisement is designed to inform travelers that El Al provides service to many points besides Israel. “Basically, we’re an international airline, and we stop at 17 cities in Europe and Africa, ” the advertisement stated. “Surprised? Good. Then you’ll also be surprised at some of the tours we have. Tours that don’t go to Israel for instance, and tours that go from Israel to places you’d never expect us to send you.”
The El Al de-luxe tour including Egypt also offered stops at Iran, South Africa, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Israel.
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.
