| Ten years ago, they joke in Israel, here you could meet people speaking Russian. Today you can meet someone who speaks Hebrew. The rest are in Russian. But these, to the chagrin of Russian tour operators and local representatives of the tourism industry, are not tourists. In Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and even in the purely resort Eilat, every first person sitting on a bench, crawling out of a mind-blowing attraction or persuading someone to take a photo with a teenage python whispers, shouts or barks in Russian. This is a local resident.
And this is a tragedy for local authorities. Because Russian tourism a few months ago was one of the most profitable types of business. And this is no less a tragedy for Russian tour operators and air carriers.
It turns out that the former in vain received, with enormous difficulties, accreditation at the embassy, and the latter broke the monopoly of the Israeli El Al and the Russian company Transaero (from this year Aeroflot and Rossiya began flying to Israel, which has already led to a reduction in prices for group air tickets by almost 50%).
Russian tourists unexpectedly quickly and en masse disappeared from the Israeli destination. According to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, in January-October this year, a little over 32 thousand people came from Russia, and during the same period last year - almost 46 thousand. The October flow compared to last October fell by 53% - 3 thousand people.
This fall is unexpected because the Russian tourist is a creature fearless to the point of despair. He was the last to stop traveling to Turkey (after the devastating earthquakes and the Ocalan mess) and the first to return there. He was least of all afraid of the Luxor events in Egypt and, defying fear, went to where 67 tourists were shot. A month and a half after Luxor, charters to Egypt began to fill up, and eight months later the flow was fully restored.
But Russian tourists did not stay in Israel and are in no hurry to return there. What's happened? The war is to blame, some say. They are right, but only partly. Israel is so small that it is difficult to talk about war in the subjunctive mood. But whether the state is fighting or not is unclear. Judging by television reports, including those broadcast in Israel, yes. “Boy, do you want to be a soldier? - the reporter tortures the preschool child. “Nope, they’re being killed.” Judging by the outskirts of Jericho, the Gaza Strip, the village of Ramallah, seen from the window of a microbus (quite ordinary, without a net from stones on the windshield and a heavy machine gun), there is no war. “The road here is very scary, and you better close your eyes,” says Rita Demidova, a spokeswoman for the tourism department of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, as we approach the Monastery of St. George near Jericho. “Our driver has already closed his eyes.” The road is scary because there is only one strip of incredibly twisted serpentine and on the right there is an abyss.
“You must agree that in Israel this (the conflict between Israel and Palestine - Ed. ) looks a little different than from abroad,” says Itay Igis, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Transport of Israel. We agreed. “The tourist routes are all open, and in a few days Bethlehem will also open,” promises Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.
Yesterday, on the birthday of baby Jesus, his birthplace was indeed open to tourists. But there were only a few tourists from Russia there. The reason for the decline in tourist flow, President of the Russian Association of Travel Agencies (RATA) Sergei Shpilko is sure, lies not in the political, but in the marketing area. The two examples given above - with Turkey and Egypt - are indicative, but because then the host parties agreed to unprecedented reductions in prices for hotels, travel packages and air tickets.
In the case of Israeli tourism, this is not entirely true. The modest budget ($400 thousand) allocated by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in 2000 for advertising in Russia was frozen with the outbreak of hostilities. Hotels in Israel are, to put it mildly, not cheap, and this is also not conducive to tourism. Even at the Dead Sea, despite its unique location (400 m below the level of the World Ocean plus air and water supersaturated with mineral salts), where, it would seem, just crowds of ailing Russians should be treated.
“We help the Dead Sea,” says Vladimir Fridman, head physician of the Medisea clinic in the town of El Bokek, “there is an amazing sun that does not burn even in terrible heat, because the mineralized air blocks the hard spectrum of ultraviolet radiation. The air, water and mud of the Dead Sea, 40% saturated with potassium and calcium salts, are healing.” Medical assistance to the Dead Sea is not cheap. The minimum medical package costs $400. For some diseases, the minimum is meaningless, and treatment costs 2-4 times more. Just now, however, several hotels in El Bokek decided to reduce prices for Russian tourists from 15 to 25%. But this is tiny compared to the huge number of cities and hotels in Israel, whose services are expensive.
The visit of the RATA delegation to Israel has just ended. The association's presidium, which went there in full force, negotiated with the Ministry of Tourism about the possibility of reducing the cost of a tour package for Russians - for example, by providing hotels and travel companies working with the Russian market with tax benefits. Also about the resumption and expansion of the information and advertising campaign in Russia. Judging by the comments of the Russian participants in the negotiations, they agreed on information and money. The Israelis promised to think about taxes.
The editors of the newspaper “Vremya Novostei” thanks the company “CORIS Assistance” (tel. 956 04 49) for assistance with the trip. Elena ZAGORODNYAYA
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