Economy and Tourism

IMTM 2011 will be held on 8-9 February 2011 at the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center: from 15:00 on, the general public are invited - at no charge.

This year’s IMTM 2011 - Israel's International Mediterranean Tourism Market – is set to be the biggest since its inception 17 years ago. Over 300 exhibitors from more than 35 countries are participating in the fair, to be held on 8-9 February in Pavilion 1 at the Tel Aviv Convention Center.

Participant countries include this year Croatia, Russia, Romania, Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, Italy, the UK, Estonia, Slovenia, Belarus, Portugal, Spain, Lithuania, Montenegro, Latvia, Georgia, Belgium, India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Tanzania.

And after a two-year break, Greece is participating again, following its popularity as a destination for Israelis who continue to boycott Turkey.

Dozens of tourism and leisure organizations from Israel are set to attend, and will present the Israeli public with this year’s innovations and attractions, aimed at boosting domestic tourism.

On Tuesday and Wednesday (February 8 and 9) IMTM will be open to the general public - at no charge - from 15:00.

Several professional conferences will be held during the event. Travel agents will be discussing the question of the Dead Sea with journalists, the sixth Annual Conference of the Center for Academic Studies will be looking at innovation and creativity in Israel’s tourism sector, and a special conference for managers of Human Resources and Employee Well-Being is planned - “Human Resources and Employee Well-Being in the Social Networks Era.”

Eyal Shmueli, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Israel Travel News magazine, and one of the architects of IMTM comments: "I'm proud to say that this year we’re expecting a record number of exhibitors. Every year we’re thrilled by the huge number of queries from dozens of countries and Israeli tourism sites – all planning to attend the event. It’s an expression of confidence in Israeli tourists and their economic clout. Like every year, we’ll be awarding special emphasis to domestic tourism and incoming tourism – both of which are flourishing, and generating thousands of jobs in Israel. We invite everyone to come to the event and take a world tour in just a couple of hours."

IMTM Is the annual central event of Israel’s tourism sector. Its mission is to encourage incoming and outgoing tourism, plus domestic tourism in Israel, and to strengthen joint ventures with other countries. This is the 17^th consecutive year of the event. Alongside the foreign nations taking part are Israeli representatives, tourism associations from around the country, hotels and airlines, car rental organizations, and tourism-service providers.

The event is organized by Ortra Ltd. and Israel Travel News, and sponsored by the Tourism Ministry, the Israel Hotel Association, EL AL, IATA, Israel Tourist & Travel Agents Association and Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association.