"LAND OF THE PALMS" AT THE INTERNATIONAL TOURISM FAIR

The "Land of the Palms" regional tourism office, which is a joint project of the city of Beit Shean and the Gilboa and Beit Shean Valley Regional Councils, appeared last week, for the first time, at international tourism fairs. The first appearance was at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market, which was held in Ganei HaTa'arucha and the second was at the Go Galilee Fair in Tiberias.

The regional tourism office, run by MATI Beit Shean, constructed an impressive booth, with a giant collage (3.0 x 2.5 m) showing the Beit She'an National Garden, the Sahne, the Gilboa mountains and the Gilboa iris, which are the region's most outstanding symbols. The booth at Ganei HaTa'arucha drew much attention because of its unique nature and because of its innovative achievement - the creation of a new tourist region - "Land of the Palms." Visitors to the booth included Minister of Tourism Mr. Arnon Shachak and his staff, who took a close look at the wealth of tourism information in the material distributed at the fair. Thousands of others visited as well, including hundreds of travel agents from around the world.

The Go Galilee convention is held yearly in Tiberias in order to market tourism to the Galilee in general and to the Kinneret area in particular. This year, "Land of the Palms" and especially the Roman-Byzantine city in Beit She'an captured center stage at the convention. Tourism office representatives accompanied the travel agents during each day of the convention. The convention's high point was the event in the Beit Shean National Garden on Saturday night. The park was lit by special lighting, "Dionysius, God of the Wine, and his friends" were "brought to life" by English-speaking actors who performed around the park. The evening ended with greetings by Pini Cabalo and Yael Shaltieli and a festive dinner in the theater.

There was a great interest shown by travel agents in our region's potential. During the week, many meetings were held with travel agents from all over the world, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Switzerland, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand, Canada, Germany, India and others. All requested more material on sites of "Land of the Palms" in order to examine the possibility of returning for a visit with their clients.

The "Land of the Palms" project was initiated by the region's mayors, the help of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, the Jewish Agency, and Partnership 2000.

Adar 5761 - March 2001