By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
Israel broke its own record in 2012.
This past year, 400,000 Israelis visited Greece. When you think about it, 400,000 Israelis doing anything is impressive.
There are almost 8 million people currently live in Israel. That means that, statistically, one in every 16 Israelis visited Greece in 2012. In real terms, it probably means that some people visited Greece more than on time during the year. But the number is still very impressive.
Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni is actually on a trip to Israel to drum up even more tourism.
Israelis love to travel and they love junkets. Until recently Turkey was the pace to go. But ever since the May 31, 2010 flotilla debacle, Israelis have been reluctant to visit Turkey. As a reminder, the flotilla ship that Israel boarded was Turkish, tensions ensued, and since then Turkey has been on the warpath.
Israeli tourism to Turkey disappeared completely after the 2010 flotilla but it is now creeping up. Last year ELAL Airlines brought 270,000 Israelis to Turkey, the number for charter flights were negligible.
As much as they like to travel, Israelis like to be liked. Israelis are voting with their feet. So they are going to and spending money in Greece, the arch enemy of Turkey, instead of giving money to a country whose government is constantly, publicly, berating them.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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