Gal Hana says it’s time for tourism to show a new face and that the pandemic has given the industry its best-ever opportunity to do so. Israel’s Canadian tourism director certainly wants to see the beleaguered travel industry recover as soon as possible from the effects of COVID-19, but at the same time to do so in a sustainable way that elevates travel as an agent of good and mitigates some of its well-documented drawbacks.
“I’m trying to share the message of responsible tourism because I think it’s an appropriate message and its very relevant for this day,” Hana told Travel Industry Today in a recent interview. “And personally,” he added, “I feel motivated to try to change the narrative a little bit, because it’s very easy once the borders reopen to go back to the past times when tourism was only leisure and we didn’t utilize the potential of tourism for something else, and really make a change in the world.”
Israel suffers its share of over-tourism, for example, with Hana pointing to always “packed” Old Jerusalem where sometimes as many as 60 buses can be lined up at a particular site.
Mitigating the situation has been a priority for the country for several years, the director added, with a prime strategy to encourage visitors to travel further afield to places like the Negev, Galilei and Golan Heights regions, thereby helping maximize their potentials and syphoning tourists away from traditional hotspots.
In the Negev desert “tons of money” was invested, Hana says, to help “embrace and differentiate” the region’s adventure product, while other lesser-known attributes of Israel, such as its wineries and national parks, have also been spot-lighted.
Israel has also heavily invested in becoming fully accessible to all visitors, including at its beaches.
Hana is encouraged that some tour operators (he name-drops Intrepid as one) are taking sustainability to heart and introducing new and best practices that he plans to share with partners at home in Israel.
“What the pandemic has made us understand,” he says, “is that we really need to walk together.”
For example, he points out that the need for health, safety and security is interrelated and affects all nations, adding, “We need to share the same message globally that tourism and travel is safe.”
Similarly, and especially at a time when overcrowding has the added disadvantage of both spreading COVID and discouraging potential travellers, the message that “you shouldn’t necessarily go to the traditional and known places, but go to the off-the-beaten-path places where you can really enjoy and support the local industry” ought to be promoted across borders.
GLOCALISM
Hana calls it “glocalism” and he says he has reached out to the Canadian Association of Tour Operators (CATO) to propose establishing a set of goals for the industry that can be shared globally – precepts that benefit both the industry and travellers.
For example, he suggests that a tourist who chooses to volunteer for a day on a kibbutz in Israel will come home with a rewarding experience that goes beyond simply seeing the sites.
Hana says he once helped clean beaches in Costa Rica and it’s an experience he remembers and “cherishes” to this day. “The chance to do something a little bit different and more than the leisure part is very significant.”
He points to protests by citizens in Europe in recent years against the never-ending tourism hordes: “Tourists weren’t welcome in many cities. In Israel we hadn’t got to that point, but we were on the way.”
But if tourists can be encouraged to travel elsewhere – Madrid rather than Barcelona, for example – and at off-peak times, or embrace local experiences, this “absorption theory” could have a significant beneficial effect, he says, plus many more people would reap the rewards of socially responsible tourism.
However, over-tourism is only “one piece of the pie,” Hana continues, pointing to the significant effects of environmental degradation caused by tourism that, in some cases, has encouragingly shown signs of recovery during the current COVID travel lull.
The trade – the “selling force” – is a critical part of the solution, Hana states. “It’s very easy for us to go back to the comfort zone and to sell only Old Jerusalem, Nazareth and Tel Aviv – and I get that the majority of tourists will go to the traditional sites. But the question is whether we – and by we, I mean everyone – will be wise enough to share the good more globally, more geographically and more seasonally.”
DESTINATIONS
Hana says destinations must work even harder to promote that message with local suppliers and that travel counsellors must recommend alternative sustainable options to their clients. Moreover, he adds that tour operators and agents must recognize that post-pandemic clients “will not be as resilient as they used to be” and will need a sense of security that will not be attained simply by going back to traditional products. “We have to take it to the next level otherwise people won’t come.”
Destinations must also evolve and begin to support each other in a post-COVID-19 world, he adds. “In the end, once the recovery comes, we will see the mega trends of consumers going to the same destinations and the question will be whether we have the courage and the integrity and the solidarity to support tourism to go more globally.”
That includes packaging product and promotion with regional neighbours (in Israel’s case, they had planned to work with Jordan in 2020 and now have opportunities with the United Arab Emirates). Greece is a natural partner, says Hana, but he says he would even promote the far-away Caribbean if it furthered the responsible tourism message.
“So, yes, it will be lower (tourist numbers) for us, but if we really want tourism to recover, we need to understand that we need to see the global good,” Hana says.
“(The pandemic) is like those apocalypse movies where everything re-started,” he muses. “We need to be sure that everything doesn’t go back to the point where we started in February, 2020. We need to know how to make people more aware… and that it’s going to last.
“This,” he says, “is the best opportunity we will ever get!”
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