Kochi: Eyeing the largely untapped Israeli market, Kerala Tourism participated in the International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The two-day event, which is the largest annual professional tourism fair of its kind in eastern Mediterranean, concluded on Thursday.
Director of Kerala Tourism P Bala Kiran, led the Kerala delegation. A press release said, to mark the occasion, Kerala Tourism launched a book titled ‘One Heart, Two Worlds The Story of The Jews of Kochi’, the first-of-its-kind visual odyssey of the Jews who decided to make Kerala their home before several of the diasporic community returned to Israel. There are less than 30 Jews remaining in Kochi presently. The book was launched by the Indian Ambassador to Israel Pavan Kapoor.
The book has been chronicled by scholar and historian Dr K S Mathew and creative director and writer Yamini Nair and published by Stark World Publishing.
Kerala Tourism Minister Kaakampally Surendran said, “In the highly competitive global marketplace, we need to scout for new source from markets abroad to attract tourists. Our participation in a prestigious event like IMTM will act as a trigger to meet that objective.”
He also said that in addition to the direct flight, which is from Tel Aviv to Delhi and Mumbai, a new direct flight will be launched by Arkia Israeli Airlines from Tel Aviv to Kochi in September this year. This would tourism in Kerala in particular.
According to official reports, in 2018, 15,339 Israeli tourists had visited Kerala. 11,892 in 2017 and 10,922 in 2016.
Tourism secretary Rani George said, “We have already made our presence felt in Gulf countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Forging strong ties with the tourism segment of Israel will open new vistas of expansion for Kerala Tourism in that region.”
Stating that the visit yielded positive outcome, Bala Kiran said, “We’ve held a series of discussions with various stakeholders of the tourism and hospitality industry of Israel, and it would pave the way for two-way visits from Kerala and Israel,” he added.