ISRAEL: Dead Sea Developments

Under the direction of its subsidiary, the Dead Sea Regional Enterprises Company, the Tamar Regional Council is in the process of renovating and upgrading the beaches in the area under its jurisdiction, as part of a government program announced in 2012, when allocations totaling ILS 833 million over a period of five years were approved, to develop the Dead Sea region.

According to the terms of the original proposal, ILS 265 million would be earmarked for tourism infrastructure and ILS 134 million invested in environmental protection and treating the damages caused by receding water levels in the northern basin and the sinkholes along the beach that resulted from them. (In addition, ILS 434 million would be distributed as incentive grants for hotel and attraction development).

Under the terms of the beach upgrading program, the barriers separating one beach from another have been removed, 12 public beaches have either been improved or are in line for improvements. Seven (in the area between Neve Zohar and Ein Bokek, including the beach opposite the Isrotel Dead Sea, reported in ITN #378 and a segregated beach with separate times for men and women) are already operational and two more are scheduled to be ready by the end of 2016, reports Dead Sea Regional Enterprises Company Manager, Tourism & Local Enterprise Development Liat Koren-Litvinoff.

As part of this overall program, the building housing the public solarium will be renovated too. “All the beaches, including those accessed directly from a hotel, are under the management of the Dead Sea Regional Council,” she emphasizes, “though hotels still have the right to offer sunbeds, towels, etc., free of charge to their guests, at the beaches fronting them.”

As part of the project to improve infrastructure, the Neve Zohar-Ein Bokek seaside promenade is being extended northwards to a length of about 14.5 km, accessible to physically challenged visitors, illuminated along its entire length and outfitted with benches. The first few kilometers of the extension are scheduled to be inaugurated by this coming September and future plans call for the promenade to be extended farther, all the way to Masada.

Promotion
“While the overall project calls for the development of 2700 new hotel rooms in the region, the Dead Sea is not just the Ein Bokek and Hamei Zohar hotel districts; it’s the umbrella for our ‘Between Desert & Sea’ approach,” Koren-Litvinoff says, “a much broader concept, since our hotels, with all that they offer - those currently operating and those that will be built - are in close proximity to the Judean Desert, an appealing and fascinating venue for tourists interested in ecology, adventure, history, or any number of tourism niches, and/or an abundance of walking tours.”

To date, this program, complemented by the region’s new reservations center, has been offered in Hebrew only, to the Israeli FIT and families market. Based on the success of these efforts, when organized tours of desert ravines and dry water beds, led by guides from the Society for the Protection of Nature, were offered free of charge on a trial basis, with buses to transfer people between the hotels and the departure point in the new Sodom Ecological Park adjacent to Ein Tamar and Neot Hakikar, south of it, plans have been developed to tailor-make packages for FITs from abroad too, with a selection of options focusing on desert activities, the hotels area and the area in the vicinity of the ecological park, which serves as a gateway for desert excursions by foot bike, or 4x4. The website where the offerings are listed has just been translated into English, and other languages will be added soon.

As to the park, it opened as a nature reserve about a year ago, to serve as a habitat for birds and local fauna. It has been landscaped with indigenous flora and features a small stage, along with a marker adorned with stones from Nepal - a cultural interchange and token of friendship between the highest and lowest points in the world, and sister marker to one placed at Mt. Everest, with stones from the Dead Sea.

Based on this program and the experience gained from operating it, the Dead Sea has started to become more active in promoting its product to the European tourism market, showcasing packages recently at TTG Rimini that included both desert experiences and spa and sightseeing options. “The combination of a desert experience and a stay-put at a spa hotel is very enticing, but the fact that now we also can offer about 60 zimmers, along with three sleepover camping areas in the vicinity, makes us attractive to other market segments as well,” Koren-Litvinoff explains.

On the other hand, the Dead Sea Regional Enterprises Company is considering participation in IMEX, Munich this year, as a way of showcasing its product to the incentive tourism market.

Markets
Along with Russia (about 50 percent), Germany, Italy and France, the traditional markets which the Dead Sea Regional Enterprises Company has been targeting in recent years, it is turning its attention to China in 2016. To this end, it has already started preparing material in Chinese and has started to look for a local representative.