Israel Hawks $999 Package Deals as Tourism Slumps
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More than 900 discounted vacation packages to Israel have been sold through the marketing website Groupon as the upswing in violence hits the lucrative tourism sector.
Some 920 eight-day tour packages had been sold for $999 each on the website as of Thursday afternoon. The trips, marketed jointly with Israel’s Tourism Ministry, include flights, hotels and tours throughout the country. They have been on sale for less than a week and will remain on sale for seven more days.
“As a result of the success of the campaign, I have issued instructions to try and expand the marketing efforts and cooperation with discount sales sites in other countries,”Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said in a statement Thursday.
The offer comes amid a wave of terror that has affected tourism to Israel, the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot reported. The package is designed “to project a sense of business as usual and encourage tourism during the months when hotel occupancies in Israel are low,” Levin told the newspaper.
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