Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has tapped incumbent Geoffrey Weill Associates for U.S. PR and U.K. travel PR firm Hills Balfour, following an RFP process, as the Jewish State is planning tourism PR campaigns in Europe and North America.
Five firms pitched the U.S. as agencies responding to the RFP were said to include Quinn & Co., 5W PR, Ketchum and Edelman.
A U.K. official confirmed the hiring of Hills Balfour, but a representative of the Ministry of Tourism in New York did not return inquiries.
The ruling Likud Party in Israel retained Rubenstein PR for a three-month pact through September this year as the Palestinian Authority pushed members of the United Nations on a vote for statehood over the summer.
But Israel’s outreach to agencies in Europe and the U.S. is an effort to position the country beyond its long-running conflict with the Palestinians.
Conflicting reports about the ministry’s PR searches have surfaced in mainstream and trade press, and firms said by sources to have pitched for the work denied doing so last month.
The London office of Israel’s tourism entity put out an RFP in February for the U.K. and Ireland search, calling for pitches for a contract promoting the country to tourists. It did not work with a firm in the U.K. prior to hiring Hills Balfour, said a representative.
London-based Hills Balfour has worked with tourist boards including Arizona, Chicago, Portugal, Tahiti and Mauritius.
The U.K. tender was followed in August by an RFP covering the U.S. and Canada “in an effort to positively change image perceptions” of the country.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in January that the country planned to hire a network of European firms to handle PR throughout the continent, where Israel does not enjoy the steadfast support it gets in the U.S., and to position the country beyond the Palestinian conflict. A report out from Israel daily newsapaper Yedioth Ahronoth in January said all of Europe’s Israeli embassies were ordered to survey three local PR firms to counsel diplomats.