An Austrian couple is currently touring Israel, selected in a competition held by the Israel Government Tourist Office in Germany to star in a campaign to encourage tourism to Israel. Last March, while in Germany, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov launched a competition to select the "face of the German tourist in Israel". The competition was widely publicized in the Axel Springer Group of newspapers and various web sites.
The competition aroused great public interest and within three weeks 350 couples registered seeking to compete for the prize: a 10-day visit to Israel during which they will be filmed for the new face of the German tourist campaign, designed to encourage tourism from Germany, Switzerland and Austria to Israel. Earlier this week, the couple met with the Tourism Ministry Director-General Director-General Noaz Bar Nir, who listened to their experiences and impressions of tourist destinations in the country.
The invitation to participate in the competition was publicized within the framework of ITB - the largest annual tourism fair in Germany. Couples were invited to apply and were asked to explain why they are interested to visit Israel and are suited for the campaign. The winners, Barbara and Roman Egger, a Christian couple from Salzburg, Austria, aged 38 and parents of a 4-year-old girl impressed the judges by their photogenic appearance and their enthusiasm for the visit, their first to Israel. In the nomination forms, the couple wrote: "Whether it is in the desert, at sea, at the Western Wall or the Galilee, Israel has fascinated us for a long time. We are eager to visit and hope our smile will pave the way for our journey."
The trip which the couple won lasted 10 days and included visits to the most popular sites in the Galilee, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea with emphasis on diverse travel and leisure experiences: pilgrimages, active recreation and adventure, culture and history, and more. Their visit was filmed and documented on video and stills. Also, the couple created a travel journal describing their experiences. Upon their return to Austria, the couple will hold a press conference and will participate with the Israel Government Tourist Office for a year on various advertising campaigns.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov: "Germany, as well as neighboring German-speaking countries, is a source country of growth and development for incoming tourism. This market requires an innovative and challenging marketing campaign, such as this, since these are tourists that travel several times a year and are looking for new destinations with unique experiences.”Ami Zuberi, Director of the Israel Government Tourist Office in Berlin noted that "the main obstacle that prevents a visit from the German-speaking countries to Israel is a fear of the security situation, thus we set the goal of the campaign to remove the fear of visiting Israel. To this end we chose a "normal" couple, not models, which sends the message that even the "next door neighbor" or friend that travels to Israel returns happy and full of experiences.”
Background: During 2012 (January - July) about 132,000 tourists from Germany traveled to Israel, a figure which is an increase of 4% compared to last year. In 2011, 221,000 German tourists visited Israel, an increase of about 10% compared with 2010. Today, Germany is ranked as the third source country for incoming tourism from Europe (after Russia and France). The German tourist travels to Israel for recreation and pleasure, business or religious pilgrimage, stays on average 10 nights and spends about $1,200 during his visit.
Austria and Switzerland are smaller source countries, with the first half of this year reaching over 21,000 from Austria and about 25,000 tourists from Switzerland. For Switzerland, this represents an increase of 8% over the same period last year.
