Tel Aviv in 2030 : City Releases Master Plan for Increased Tourism.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and other city officials presented a master plan on Monday for increasing tourism in the coming decade.

The goal of the “Tel Aviv-Jaffa 2030” plan is to position the city as one of the most popular urban destinations in the world by implementing new tourist attractions, increasing available English information, and developing infrastructure, communications and accommodations.

“In recent years our city has enjoyed an extraordinary tourist boom,” said Huldai. “From a small town with very few visitors, Tel Aviv-Jaffa has become a place that many people want to enjoy and experience.”

Tel Aviv saw 2.2 million tourists in 2018 totaling $1.6 billion in hotel business, according to a press release issued by the Tel Aviv Municipality about the plan.

The city has devoted efforts to upgrade tourism, cultural heritage, and historical sites, Huldai explained, but this increase must be managed carefully in order to maintain order.

“It is already possible to identify challenges that must be addressed,” said Huldai. “The master plan is designed to preserve the
tourism boom, to manage it wisely, and to plan it for the future.”

The main challenges the plan addresses include: cost of living, public transportation, availability of information in foreign languages, and the perception of Israel as an unsafe country.

According to the press release, the first tactic of the plan is to increase the branding of the city as a tourist destination by hosting international conferences, and to expand target audiences to focus more on “families, Muslims and Arabs, Chinese and the elderly” by increasing availability of information in foreign languages. The city also plans to implement new attractions and hotel infrastructure, striving to accelerate the construction of new hotels, convert office buildings to hotels, and regulate the rental market
for tourists. The goal is to double the number of hotel rooms from the current 10,500 within a decade.

The plan was presented by Tel Aviv city engineer Udi Carmeli and director of the World Tourism and Tourism Administration Eitan Schwartz. Carmeli declared 2019 as a defining year for tourism in Israel, particularly Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

“This year we hosted the Eurovision Song Contest – without a doubt, the largest international event in the city’s 110 years – which enabled the municipality to enhance the tourism assets of the city, and also provided an opportunity to launch moves that will serve the tourism industry in the city in the coming years,” Carmeli said.

He added that the key to an effectively planned city
is considering both the needs of tourists and residents. “The city’s vision of tourism places Tel Aviv as a leading destination for urban tourism that is innovative and responsive to the city’s residents, taking their quality of life into account.”

Written by: Shaked Karabelnicoff for www.jpost.com