Israel Inks Marketing Agreement with Air Madrid

Israel has signed a €350,000 marketing agreement with Spanish airline Air Madrid to boost up tourism from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America.

The announcement follows a meeting between 21 Spanish mayors visiting Israel and Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog. The money, to be invested by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and Air Madrid, will be used for promotional literature and tourist trade events.

The agreement, signed in September, will be in effect till the end of the year and can be extended into 2007.

His ministry’s decision to open a new Israel Government Tourist Office in Brazil several months ago, as well as the latest agreement with Air Madrid, are designed to further promote the country as a pilgrimage destination to South American and Spanish Catholics, says Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog.

Some 70,000 tourists from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations visited Israel in the first eight months of 2006. In 2005, 95,000 Latin Americans and 52,000 Spaniards traveled to Israel.