Edelman, Ketchum, 5W Public Relations, Quinn & Co. and incumbent Geoffrey Weill Assocs. are in the running for Israel’s North American tourism account. The selection is expected with 60 days.

Israel enjoyed a record year for tourism in 2010 as a record 3.4M people visited, 700K of that amount were from the U.S. A goal of the country’s Ministry of Tourism is to boost the number of American visitors to the 1M mark by 2015.

The average amount spent during an eight-day tour was $1,090 per person. More than nine of ten visitors (92 percent) rated their experience either “very good” or “excellent.”
Thirty-eight percent visited as part of a religious pilgrimage, 17 percent visited relatives, 15 percent traveled on business, 15 percent went for pleasure and fun and 13 percent toured the sites.

Jerusalem (76 percent) was the most visited spot. It was followed by Tel Aviv (54 percent), Dead Sea (49 percent), Tiberias (42 percent), Galilee (32 percent), Eilat (15 percent) and Haifa (13 percent).

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