Elias Levy Benarroch in MADRID
The Israeli pavilion at the FITUR 2025 tourism fair, one of the most important in the world and taking place in Madrid until Sunday, is hosting 25 companies from the sector that are trying to take advantage of the ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as the Christian Jubilee of 2025, to bring foreign tourists back to the streets of Israel after fifteen months of war.
The pavilion was inaugurated on the first day of the Fair, yesterday, Wednesday, in the presence of two representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, Mijael Itzhakov, head of the cabinet of Minister Haim Katz, and Yosef Penjos, director of Seminars, Training Workshops and Exhibitions. In a brief ceremony where he cut a ribbon to enter the pavilion, the spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in Spain, Tal Itzhakov, stressed that Israel remains “a great unknown” even though “few countries are talked about more in the media, especially since October 7.” And he said that Israel is “a country where faith, history and nature intertwine, creating a unique experience for those who visit it,” “the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the cradle of cities and places linked to the awakening of civilization in the Middle East.”
JUBILEE YEAR
Located in Pavilion 4, next to the stands of Portugal and Turkey, the Israeli exhibition has sparked the interest of an industry, that of religious pilgrimage, which in 2025 commemorates a new Christian Jubilee, and aspires to move millions of people along the main religious routes of the world. Experts believe that 17% of global tourism (about 1.400 billion people a year) responds to this motivation, and the Holy Land should not be left out. Not now that the ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza seem to put an end to the war.
The Uruguayan-Israeli Juan Fridman, president of the Genesis Tours company and a veteran of pilgrimage tourism, reminded Aurora that in Israel there are two Jubilee Gates, one at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the other at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. There is also the one at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. For Christian believers, crossing them in the Jubilee Year means the absolution of all their sins.
“We hope that the Holy Land will once again be in the hearts of pilgrims and that they will resume their journeys,” said Fridman, who believes that this type of tourism serves as a promoter of recovery because it is “a tourism of faith and, of course, trusting in their faith and in God, they immediately embark on their journeys, especially when they have the motivation of their priests and pastors.”
Pilgrimage tourism is defined as that in which the traveller travels for religious reasons, although it may include other reasons. “When we talk about religious tourism, it is not merely a title to make it seem more interesting, but we know for sure what the pilgrim wants to receive, what he wants to visit or do, and in this way we carefully prepare each of the days that comprise the pilgrimage.”
Today, Thursday, the Israeli stand will hold a special meeting with the press on the occasion of the Jubilee 2025, with the participation of the Argentine priest Gustavo Riveiro D'Angelo, director of the Department of Pastoral Care of Tourism of the Spanish Episcopal Conference; Friar Luis Quintana, legal representative of the Custos of the Holy Land in Spain; the pilgrim Carlota Valenzuela, who a few years ago walked nine months from Spain to Jerusalem on an unusual pilgrimage; and Christian Galvez, editor, popularizer and TV presenter. The objective is to analyze the perspectives of the sector.
Speaking to Aurora a month and a half ago, D'Angelo said peace is essential to revive the pilgrimage, because no tourist ventures into places where there is war and destruction.
THE CHALLENGE OF RECOVERY
Israel reached a record number of more than 4 million tourists in 2019, a year before the pandemic, and has not managed to reach those numbers again since then. The global recovery that began in the tourism sector between 2022 and 2023 was interrupted on October 7 by the massacre perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist movement in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as with Iran and its proxies throughout the Middle East. All this led to the suspension of flights by the world's major airlines and a rise in ticket prices, which together meant a severe limitation on arrivals in Israel. The Ministry of Tourism now hopes that this situation will be reversed.
"We have great news," he announced in this regard. Dolores Pérez, Director of the Israel Tourism Office in Spain and Portugal, and mentioned that “airlines are coming back”: “El Al has always been flying, but Air Europa has started flying (again) at the end of December, and we hope that the return of Iberia Express will be confirmed soon.” For the moment, tourists are already feeling a reduction in fares, but they are still waiting for the ceasefire to take root and become consolidated.
The expectation of several experts consulted at the Israeli pavilion is that this recovery will begin slowly in the coming months and pick up again in September, in the months before Christmas, although none dare to make predictions until the political and military situation becomes more established and the more than 90 hostages still held by Hamas and other terrorist factions in Gaza are released.
Luz Revollar, director of the Hispanic American Department of International Travel and Congresses, recalls that the war has represented for them “a total standstill”, and that only now, after the agreement with Hamas, “people have begun to show interest in returning”. “We have to wait for this ceasefire to continue a little longer, for it to be seen that it is serious, although we already have a group arriving in February from the US and we have orders. From September onwards, I think things will improve a lot more.”
Images from the inauguration of the Israeli pavilion at FITUR and statements by the spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Spain, Tal Itzhakov. (Credit: Elías Levy Benaroch)
Uruguayan-Israeli Juan Fridman, president of the company Génesis Tours and a veteran of pilgrimage tourism. (Credit: Elías Levy Benaroch)