Just as Israel's (and Lebanon's) tourist industry was
beginning to get back onto its feet after a multi-year slump,
the war in Lebanon last summer set it back. The fighting
caused wholesale cancellations, and the Ministry of Tourism
was worried about the industry it is charged with promoting.
Things have recovered since the depths of the fighting, but
the Ministry wants to do better.
The experts at the Ministry looked around the world and found
that the most successful tourist "product" today around the
world is hefkeirus. Low morals and easy pleasures are
what draws in the big tourism dollars, from Europe to the
Pacific. So the Tourism Ministry experts produced a bunch of
marketing material to show all the big-spending tourists that
they can find hefkeirus in Israel.
Their strategy failed. After all, when it comes to decadence,
why should a tourist risk a terror attack, when he can have
it at least as good in another location that is not so
threatening? There are many locales that are eager to provide
him with hefkeirus and they can probably do a better
job. Why should anyone seek the temptations of Sodom in the
Holy Land?
One of the most basic rules of business is to try to find a
niche where you have a competitive advantage — not to
try to beat the competition where it is strongest. Israel is
a very small player on the international tourist scene, and
it just needs to add a tiny percentage of the worldwide
tourist traffic in order to do quite well for itself. New
York City, for example, attracts 40 million visitors a year.
London gets 30 million tourists a year. Washington, D.C. gets
20 million. In 2005, Israel got less than 2 million tourist
visits. If it could double that, everyone would consider it a
success.
A recent report by Ernst and Young commissioned by the
Israeli government said that Israel can double its tourist
visitors within five years in spite of its security problems.
However the global consulting firm said: "Israel's most
important strength is its worldwide unique `religious culture
/ history' (but primarily in a touristic culture /
sightseeing rather than a pure religious sense)."
In a world that is awash in permissiveness and immorality,
Israel does have something unique to offer. It is the cradle
of Judaism that has given so much to the entire world. The
point is not to convert millions of non-Jews but rather to
show them something that is very rare in our days throughout
the world, and that is the religious roots of the entire
world.
For that to be a successful attraction, the surrounding area
must be compatible. It is important to keep our public spaces
clean, in all senses of the term, because we represent the
birthplace of morality. We must exploit our unique heritage
and not try to adopt the fashions of others.
This was one of the issues surrounding the recent parade that
was ultimately, bechasdei Shomayim, confined to a
relatively private place. Freedom of expression does not
— or should not — mean that anyone has a right to
soil the public arena with any cultural filth that he enjoys.
The prime need for freedom of speech is in politics, and not
in the arts and fashions. Unfortunately it is sometimes hard
to separate the two, but not always: that parade certainly
had no political message but rather a message of bad morals
and perverted values.
Tourism is not one of our issues. Maintaining the purity of
the public spaces of Jerusalem and of all of Eretz Yisroel,
however, is one of our deepest concerns. We are arguing that
here our spiritual interest coincides with the material
interests of the country. We should not try to sell coals to
Newcastle, but rather holiness to a jaded world.
