Delta Airlines launches daily Israel flights from JFK

Over 600,000 tourists visited Israel from North America in 2007.

To meet increased demand, Delta Airlines has extended its activities in Israel and has begun to operate a new route, between New York's John F. Kennedy airport and Tel Aviv, adding another 100,000 seats for 2008. This is in addition to its daily flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv which began operating in 2005. El Al has also decided recently to increase the frequency of its flights on the New York - Tel Aviv route.

Delta's inaugural flight takes off on Monday from JFK, and lands at Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday, March 11 with a festive reception.

620,000 tourists visited Israel in 2007 - the best year ever for tourism from North America - and an increase of more than 10% over 2006. This past January saw an increase of 20% in the number of tourists from North America, with approximately 50,000 incoming tourists as opposed to 41,000 in the same month of 2007.

The Ministry of Tourism invested $11 million in its North American campaign between June and November of 2007. The campaign continued, with a similar budget, in February of this year and is supported by a $3 million PR and marketing campaign.

Ministry of Tourism Director General Shaul Tzemach said, "The increase in airline capacity and seats to Israel is an essential step in ensuring a significant increase in tourist traffic to Israel. Most of the tourists coming to Israel arrive from the United States and Europe and we are working towards an increase of 20% in incoming tourism, with the target of the Ministry of Tourism set at 2.8 million tourists.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 10, 2008

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008"

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