Once again, the Israel Government Tourist Office is gearing up for WTM. This year has been particularly busy for the London office. Rafi Shalev, has been posted to London to take up his position as Director of IGTO for the UK and Ireland.

WTM has brought an added sense of excitement and enthusiasm to the office. Logistics, invitations, business and brainstorming have all sent the office into a spin. Below is a summary of what you will find at our stand this year -

Attractions

Monday � Thursday IGTO will carry on celebration of the 60th anniversary at WTM by spreading the word about Israel�s amazing history with educational opportunities and special entertainment.

Popular actors from the Balbalu Theatre will be performing on the stand to promote aspects of Israel including: Jerusalem - The holy land; Eilat � The never ending summer; Hi-tech - robots; The Kibbutz experience and Tel Aviv - The city that never sleeps.

Monday � Wednesday

15:00 � 17:00

Daily happy hour on stand with a special appearance from an Israeli DJ on the Monday spinning some tunes from 5pm to get the party started and give people a glimpse of Tel Aviv nightlife.

Monday 10 November 15:00 � 17:00

Uri Geller will be appearing to open the Tel Aviv area of the stand in celebration of the city�s 100th birthday next year.

Tuesday 11 November 15:00

Come to the stand at 3pm to have a kick about and head off with Israeli Portsmouth and Chelsea footballing wonder kid, Ben Sahar for the chance to win a holiday for two to Israel.

Wednesday 12 November 14:00

Come along to watch the world record breaking competition in humus eating being broken and challenge the title if you�re feeling a little peckish!

Israel will also be treating visitors to the stand with massages and spa product giveaways by highly acclaimed Ahava.

Business

Monday - 15:30

The director General of Tourism, Shaul Zemach, will be hosting a press conference on stand to speak about the rise in tourism to the country and plans for the coming year - from investment in the trade, to advertising campaigns, plans for Tel Aviv and the Red Sea destination of Eilat.

Investment in the trade: IGTO is investing huge amounts of time, money and other resources in their plans to increase trade support for 2009. This includes developing itineraries that operators can incorporate into their 2009 programmes, agent training in the form of familiarization trips, training programmes and face to face training sessions, the introduction of agent incentives and investment in trade advertising.

IGTO is investing thousands of pounds in the promotion of Israel for 2009. The tourist board will work closely with tour operators and agents to increase the profile of the destination as well as developing a stand alone website for Eilat, training seminars for agents and investing a large amount of money in an advertising campaign.

As Israeli city Tel Aviv gears up to its 100th anniversary in 2009, Rafi Shalev, Director of Tourism, UK & Ireland, IGTO, will be on the Israel stand at WTM to talk about why this is fast becoming one of the most interesting and attractive cities for tourism in the world.

Tuesday 11 November 12:30 � 14:30

Rafi Shalev will be hosting a *lunch to announce details of Israel�s integrated marketing strategy and its plans to work with the trade to establish the UK market as the leading source of traffic to Israel for the coming years.

-Ends-

*For more details, please contact Melissa Ramsden � 0207 299 1113 Melissa@igto.co.uk