For the second consecutive year, Israel has broken its tourism record in India along with reaching a staggering three million tourists arrival mark in 2017. With more than 49,000 Indians having visited Israel until October 2017, the country marked a growth of 34% from January to October vis-à- vis the same period last year, according to statistics released by Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT).

Speaking about the positive growth, Hassan Madah, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism India, said, “This has been the best year of incoming tourist arrivals for Israel and India continues to be an important contributor for us. Our effort towards promoting Israel as a dynamic holiday destination as opposed to its otherwise restricted perception as a religious destination is yielding positive results and we are witnessing successful outcomes of our increased investments in the Indian market.”

Hassan Madah, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism India

Israel has been courting tourists from India for a while now with a flurry of celebrity endorsements, ad campaigns and social media. The Israeli government, keen to tap a growing Asian middle class, has thrown its resources behind a number of efforts to promote the destination.

In May 2016, A-list Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor came to Israel as a guest of the Israel Tourism Ministry. The hope here was that her endorsements, in the form of social media posts, would translate to more tourist visits down the road. Sonam Kapoor chronicled her trip via Snapchat, which saw her visiting sites around the Old City and the Dead Sea. She later appeared in a photoshoot of the Harper’s Bazaar Bride, India, frolicking in the streets of ancient Jerusalem, wearing a number of gowns created by both Indian and Israeli designers.

Just after the magazine appeared, the Israeli Tourism Ministry kicked off another US$1.5 million campaign in India, replete with print media endorsements and shout-outs on social media, as well as a dedicated website for Indian travellers to Israel. The ministry launched its first ever ad campaign in India that carried the message – “On most vacations, you take a trip. But in Israel, you take a journey you will never forget”.

Not just that, the tourism department has also been teaming up with leading OTAs operating in India, including MakeMyTrip, Booking.com and Trivago, to offer special deals and discounts to Indian travellers.

According to Hassan Madah, since the beginning of the year, tourism has brought in $4.1 billion into the economy. “In 2016, 45,000 Indians visited Israel and we have surpassed that number by October itself this year. We hope to have 60,000 Indian arrivals to Israel by end of 2017.”

Looking at the steady increase in tourist arrivals from India, Israel is also eyeing one lakh Indian travellers to visit the country by 2018. With reports about introducing direct Air India flights connecting New Delhi with Israel in a few months, the tourist traffic from India is likely to surge further.

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Ever since 2013, Uber has steadily put itself on the face of the ride-hailing market in India and is speeding the way forward. It has undergone quantitative speculations over dozens of laws and has thrived to keep the market shares consistent. As a part of its latest brand campaign, ‘Move Forward’ Uber India has come up with a series of print and outdoor campaign. The four films that encapsulate the core idea of adoption and moving forward has been conceptualised by BBH India. The idea is to encourage the population to empower themselves in everyday situations.

Turning the focus on the adverts that have been made around the lives of Uber commuters, these four films depict real-life instances where the people hail from different walks of life and different region but move forward in the same direction.

One of the stories depicts an old couple using the Uber app to pre-book a taxi so that they can surprise their grandchild on his birthday at the stroke of midnight. This narrative brings about the sensitive topic of elderly people being less independent and imobile which is where Uber comes in play to jaunt them out of their 80s into their 18s.

The other one follows the life of a newlywed pair struggling to repair their fan in the midst of intense summer afternoon. As a result, they book an Uber and enjoy some alone-time in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. The subtlety of the picturization falls on the merits it offers as a brand within a reasonable range.

Next, comes in scene a dictatorial mother exploring suitable prospective consort for her daughter as they commute in Uber Pool. It’s a satirical take on the dating apps like Tinder that have sprung in the last decade.

Speaking of which, we come to our last print that opens with a young girl in the back seat revising her lessons while being driven to school. The driver manages to get her little one through traffic to make her reach on time for her test. While she talks away in English with her father, the film reveals that the man is able to afford English medium schooling for her daughter, thanks to Uber.

The brand is obviously detouring from the tongue and cheek humour that has gotten things running in recent times. Unlike others, it has taken a very harmonious road where it builds focus on both drivers and consumers collectively. In a conversation with Financial Express, Ashwin Dias, General Manager, Uber India says, “The campaign focuses on both riders and driver partners. It emphasises that Uber driver partners are like you and me who have a family and are working.”

Uber gives a reason for both drivers and consumers to come on board through these soft-spoken adverts. In one of such efforts to magnetise the market share in the country, it has also launched a pan-India challenge UberPITCH in partnership with the ministry of commerce and industry where the innovators would get the opportunity to meet investors and make a pitch. Of course, their focus would be more on the Indian ground as they’ve shied away from China’s Didi Chuxing; The Uber Slayer as they’d be referred to as. They’ve been reportedly handling more volumes than Ola now which clearly boils down to one thing; they’re ready to push and #MoveForward.

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The travel industry is shaping drastically at the arrival of Google Trips as the app has taken the entire tourism and hospitality ecosystem by storm. The trip planning segment has almost nothing to worry about due to their approach. It’s different with every app and given that Google’s trip planning app generates data from users the tech giant has come to realise the true potential of user generated data. Speculations don’t seem to settle as the Trips app scales up to the expectations of the consumers.

The Google Local Guides program has contributed significantly to Google Trips. This being said, the Local Guides program has offered another reason for the users to share their experiences. Its Share Your India contest was announced today with the intent to invite user-generated content from Indian audiences. From today until October 23, every high-quality review on Google Maps would get the users closer to grabbing an LG Nexus 5X, 1 out of 10 phones to be won. The winners would be announced on 4 November. For those who are interested can have a look here.

In the wake of promoting Google Trips, this contest would generate a humungous database for Google Maps which in turn would fuel the content base for Google Trips. It is tough to put together whether the trip planning segment would get affected by Google’s app because it purely depends on the user built data and their behavioural pattern. And this contest would incentivize the users to bring all data together under Google Maps umbrella.

Not a bad move, we’d say. Google’s marketing strategy is right on point and has got its game together. Such incentives and content planning would propel forward Google Trips’ position in the market as a trip planning leader howsoever some limitations be. It’s climbing the ladder step by step as we can see.

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Marriott Traveler, the award-winning digital magazine has come together in collaboration with Star Alliance to release a content series ,”Round the World” featuring photos, videos and articles of eight notable travellers who had recently circumnavigated the globe.

For the content series, Marriott worked closely with Star Alliance to develop themed itineraries for notable travel bloggers, vloggers and social media influencers as they leveraged Star Alliance’s new Round the World Ticket. This ticket enables travellers to explore multiple destinations in more than 192 countries for the price of one fare. The series will document every aspect of the influencer’s trips that included destinations like Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chicago, Dubai, Istanbul, New York City, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto and other locations.

“This project is exactly the way we want to explore the world – through the eyes of locals and travellers visiting a country for the first time,” said Marc Graser, editorial director, Marriott Creative + Content Marketing. “We were excited to work with Star Alliance to send this amazing group of travellers around the globe.”

Eight travellers who were chosen to share their journeys with Marriott Traveler readers:

• Karen Day: Editor at Large for Cool Hunting
• Justin Carmack: The creator of travel blog True Nomads
• Mark Wiens: A food blogger and video creator for Migrationology
• Megan & Mike Jerrard: Journalist and Photographers for MappingMegan
• Mr Scott Eddy: Creator of the luxury travel blog MrScottEddy
• Oneika Raymond: Creator of travel site with teaching elements at OneikaTheTraveler
• Michael Schulz: Travel photographer and owner of Berlinstagram

The content would be debuted on both Marriott Traveler and Star Alliance’s “Round the World” itinerary planning site.

To enhance traveller experience and participation in the competition, Star Alliance is offering a Round the World Ticket in Business Class for two. The participant just needs to go to http://www.staralliance.com/en/whereintheworld and correctly identify the locations of the seven bloggers’ photos. They then can submit their completed entries by September 30, and can win tickets for themselves and their companion. Marriott is going to offer the two travellers Platinum Elite Status in their Marriott Rewards loyalty program. The entries are open to anyone above 18 years and the winning entry would be announced on October 31, 2016.

See full terms and conditions here.

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