Haifa to be Invaded by Chinese?

Haifa is about to be "invaded" – by Chinese tourists, writes David Lev  http://tinyurl.com/ote6rgw . Workers from Shanghai, Sanjin, and Chengdu will be offered low-cost vacation packages to the city, after Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav signed an agreement with officials from the tourism department of the three cities.

Considering the fact that there are about 200,000 workers in the unions – and those visiting are expected to come with their families – the city is preparing itself for an inundation of Chinese visitors.

After a ceremony this week, Chengdu joined the other two cities as Haifa's Sister Cities. The agreement include working together on municipal improvement projects, developing technology together – and a mutual tourism agreement. Haifa will do its share to encourage residents to visit China, while the Chinese cities will put the word out about Haifa-oriented vacations. But considering the potential pool of visitors from either side, it's likely that Haifa will be much more impacted than its Chinese partners.

“Haifa is expanding its arc of connections with municipalities around the world,” Yahav said. “We have extensive contacts in China, and now we are making a critical move to enhance tourism from that country by making this deal with some of China's largest cities. We place a great deal of importance on these ties, which will give businesses, developers, and entrepreneurs a wonderful opportunity to enhance their connections with China.”

A Haifa municipality spokesperson said that they expected the visitors to make a “significant contribution” to Haifa's economy. To prepare for the visitors, Yahav has spoken to developers, and hopes to increase the number of hotel rooms in the city from the current 1,700 to about 2,300.

“Hopefully,” the official added, “they won't all come at the same time.”

First the Russian tourists, Now the Chinese - Wow

The Israeli Tourism Ministry Director General has now signed a tourism cooperation agreement with the Director General of the Shanghai Tourism Ministry. In the agreement, the two sides declared the importance of tourism as a means of promoting ties between the two countries and agreed to work together to advance tourism between Israel and Shanghai, in addition to the exchange of information, advertising and the encouragement and advancement of investments and joint initiatives.

As with the Russians, visa restrictions were lifted and now for the Chinese there has been a promise to raise the visa issue with the Interior and Foreign Ministries in order to remove the obstacles and find solutions that will encourage the Chinese tourist to visit Israel.

“The Chinese tourism market holds enormous potential for Israel and, despite annual growth, we have not yet begun to realize this potential. The tourism industry in China in general and in Shanghai and Beijing in particular displays great interest in and is happy to cooperate with Israel. Simplifying the bureaucratic procedures and increasing airline traffic will facilitate a significant increase in incoming tourism from China.” said the Director General

Outgoing tourism from China over the last decade has recorded impressive and fast growth with great potential for future growth. In 2009, more than 40 million tourists traveled from China, about 15% traveling to Europe and the States. This represents a potential target audience for incoming tourism to Israel.

In 2009, 10,000 tourists visited Israel from China and about 7,000 have visited from January-August 2010 (an increase of over 100% on the same period last year and 26% more than 2008).