Haim Gutin, Israel tourism commissioner for North and South America, is stepping down after four years in the post. During his tenure, Israel set new records for inbound tourism, with 3.5 million visitors in 2013, 622,000 of them from North America. Gutin talked with Destinations Editor Johanna Jainchill about how Israel can keep tourism growing despite the current unrest.
Q: This year was projected to be the best ever for Israel tourism. Will the current situation prevent that from happening?
A: It depends how long this will take. We hear from the groups that there are not a lot of cancellations, so I'm confident. If it stops in the next week, it can be reversible and continue the trend of high numbers in September, October and November. You couldn't find rooms in those months last year. People know things like this can happen and it quickly changes again.
Q: Have there been many cancellations?
A: There are a lot of cancellations from Europe but not from the U.S. Germany totally collapsed. From the U.S. there are cancellations but not massive. The groups continue to go. People are canceling on El Al because El Al lets them change without a fee. Delta is saying that only 500 people have canceled in total, and they are not even canceling, they are postponing. And there is no impact for flights in the fall. Every day it's changing. It can change in 24 hours.
There are some cancellations of individual family groups, but the majority went to Israel. This is the first time the Americans are not the first to run away. They still continue to go. It's something we are proud of, because it wasn't like that before.
We are in touch every day with the tour operators and travel agents. We don't lie: we say, "Yes, it's happening now, but [no visitors] got hurt."
Q: During your tenure, you've had the Arab Spring and the continuing problems on your borders in Syria and Egypt, yet tourism grew. How have you convinced visitors that Israel is safe?
A: To overcome all those obstacles was not so easy. We had [issues] in the past as well, and we didn't overcome them as quickly. We've succeeded thanks to having good friends in the travel industry. I didn't sell anything; they did it so well and they are the real heroes in overcoming all the obstacles and having the courage to say, "We are not pulling out from your destination." And as a result, Israel gave back. It's a very lucrative destination.
Q: What are the most important achievements of your tenure?
A: We were able to teach people about Israel and change perceptions about Israel and create an image that it is worthwhile to sell even during crisis, because at the end of the day, the client is getting much more than the money they invested in the vacation. We were also able to penetrate the Christian market, specifically the Southern Baptist Convention, which has more than 50,000 churches.
Q: What advice do you have for your successor?
A: Continue what we started and build on that. Get more involved with the home-based agents and continue to develop relationships and to expand the umbrella with the Christian market in the U.S. and the Jewish market. Only 25% of Jewish Americans have been to Israel. Five million have never been. There is big potential there.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.