Has the tourist industry hurt Israel?

[White Israelite]

Maybe this is just an American thing, but it seems it's the dream of most American women or families to want to visit a country or specific place in their life time. People will say "I want to visit France" "I want to visit Japan" "I want to visit Hawaii". Obviously people want to visit these countries because of powerful marketing and the way these places are portrayed. I have traveled to many countries so far in my lifetime, i've visited many places that have some amazing features but I do not think I would want to live in those places. Maybe people visit Italy to see old ruins or the food, or people visit Japan for the technology and culture. Anytime I mention anything about visiting or moving to Israel, people look at me like i'm insane. I see "tourist" commercials on the internet for Israel but they are not very good, some of them are flat out embarrassing like the ad's about Israels women. Do you think the tourist industry purposely hurts Israel or makes it appear as if it's not a place worth visiting?

[muman613]

The media (and Israeli tourism ministry)  wants to make Israel the destination for gay couples... That is downright evil and sick...

[The proud Jew]

The tourism industry should just promote every part of israel not just for some groups of people who are generally sick minded.

[jtf5771]

the 3rd temple will be all the tourism we'll ever need. no need to promote multicultural, multireligous tourism.

[cjd]

The media (and Israeli tourism ministry)  wants to make Israel the destination for gay couples... That is downright evil and sick...

Why in the world would they want something like that?

[muman613]

The media (and Israeli tourism ministry)  wants to make Israel the destination for gay couples... That is downright evil and sick...

Why in the world would they want something like that?

Sick Secular bastards...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2008/0813/p07s03-wome.html

There is something incongruous about the stretch of beach just under the Hilton Hotel's high perch. For there, below the bluff, are two so-called "specialty beaches."

The Hassidic beach, surrounded by an eight-foot concrete wall, features a polite sign at its entrance: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are women's bathing days, it announces. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belong to men.

It's the municipality's solution to the ultra-orthodox dilemma of how to body surf without breaking the halachic, Jewish law, prohibition on unmarried members of the opposite sex seeing one another in immodest dress.

At the beach directly adjacent to the walled compound, every day is men's bathing day. This is the unofficial gay beach.

Tel Aviv, with its warm Mediterranean weather, trendy cosmopolitan feel, and lively nightlife, has, over the past few years, become a hot destination for gay travelers.

But this is also a country where there is no separation between religion and state, and in which the majority of tourists come here for some form of religious experience – which all leads to a rather ambivalent official attitude toward the phenomenon.

According to Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based gay market research firm, gay travelers make up 10 percent or more of the travel industry, spending tens of billions of dollars yearly. They are a valuable niche market, he points out, with higher than average disposable income, and a typically strong interest in both shopping and culture.

While no research has been conducted on gay tourism to Israel specifically, says Mr. Roth, who just returned from his own visit to the country, "…we do know from focus groups and anecdotal conversations with travelers that the destination is growing in appeal."
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http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1218614715966&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

CAIRO — Israel is increasingly becoming a destination hub for homosexual tourists, with the government's hidden support seen among the reasons promoting the so-called "pink dollars" industry.

"We do know from focus groups and anecdotal conversations with travelers that the destination is growing in appeal," Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based gay market research firm, told the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday, August 13.

Israel has become the new attraction for homosexual travelers, bringing millions of "pink dollars" to the country.

Israel is cashing in on the niche market of gay tourism, which makes up 10 percent or more of the travel industry, argues Roth.
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[Rubystars]

Israel will bring curses on itself if it pursues these "pink dollars". Maybe they're becoming a destination like that because they're the only Middle Eastern country that doesn't immediately torture and kill effeminate homosexuals.

[White Israelite]

I've noticed that as well, the secular government of Israel seems to pride it's self as the only Middle Eastern country that promotes homosexual tourist destinations. Israel strongly markets beach tourism as well though this doesn't seem to be very successful but the advertisements are anything but modest.

a lot of boycotts seem to be hurting the tourist industry as well but most people tend to ignore it or have a very negative view of Israel to begin with due to the way the media portrays it.

[cjd]

The media (and Israeli tourism ministry)  wants to make Israel the destination for gay couples... That is downright evil and sick...

Why in the world would they want something like that?

Sick Secular bastards...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2008/0813/p07s03-wome.html

There is something incongruous about the stretch of beach just under the Hilton Hotel's high perch. For there, below the bluff, are two so-called "specialty beaches."

The Hassidic beach, surrounded by an eight-foot concrete wall, features a polite sign at its entrance: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are women's bathing days, it announces. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belong to men.

It's the municipality's solution to the ultra-orthodox dilemma of how to body surf without breaking the halachic, Jewish law, prohibition on unmarried members of the opposite sex seeing one another in immodest dress.

At the beach directly adjacent to the walled compound, every day is men's bathing day. This is the unofficial gay beach.

Tel Aviv, with its warm Mediterranean weather, trendy cosmopolitan feel, and lively nightlife, has, over the past few years, become a hot destination for gay travelers.

But this is also a country where there is no separation between religion and state, and in which the majority of tourists come here for some form of religious experience – which all leads to a rather ambivalent official attitude toward the phenomenon.

According to Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based gay market research firm, gay travelers make up 10 percent or more of the travel industry, spending tens of billions of dollars yearly. They are a valuable niche market, he points out, with higher than average disposable income, and a typically strong interest in both shopping and culture.

While no research has been conducted on gay tourism to Israel specifically, says Mr. Roth, who just returned from his own visit to the country, "…we do know from focus groups and anecdotal conversations with travelers that the destination is growing in appeal."
.
.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1218614715966&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

CAIRO — Israel is increasingly becoming a destination hub for homosexual tourists, with the government's hidden support seen among the reasons promoting the so-called "pink dollars" industry.

"We do know from focus groups and anecdotal conversations with travelers that the destination is growing in appeal," Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based gay market research firm, told the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday, August 13.

Israel has become the new attraction for homosexual travelers, bringing millions of "pink dollars" to the country.

Israel is cashing in on the niche market of gay tourism, which makes up 10 percent or more of the travel industry, argues Roth.
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This really is sad.... They are "bringing millions of "pink dollars" to the country". There is really fewer and fewer places on earth that still retain any common decency... I had figured Israel for one of the last holdouts...

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

That's a really fascinating question White Israelite, and one I have never really considered for myself. I can't answer it but we know that Israel is hopelessly self-hating and clueless, so you are probably right.

[White Israelite]

I've never been to Israel but when I was growing up watching tv, I remember the news would always show Israeli soldiers walking around in some ghetto town in the west bank or gaza and you would see dirty broken down buildings, trash all over, and people throwing stones so that was the image I always had of Israel in my head growing up thinking that's what it really looked like, or some of the slums in the Arab quarters of East Jerusalem. My dad would tell me that is not how Israel looks and that those were mainly the Arab areas.

Most people here assume Israel is just a desert and have not seen any of the coastal areas or the Golan Heights, etc.

I traveled to many places, i've been to Hawaii, most of the Caribbean, South America, Mexico, and I think what appealed to my family about those places was they were seen as exotic, the beaches, and they were seen as getaways. That's what most people travel for is to go somewhere they never been because it looks appealing, the marketing for those places is powerful because people want to see the natural landscapes. People don't associate Israel with natural landscape or beauty but rather what they see on tv as a desert with lots of people fighting and the media has done a lot to make sure that is what people assume it is.