ISRAEL TAKES NEW TOURISM DRIVE ONLINE
THINK Israel and what comes to mind? Tanks and bombs, most likely. The Israeli government wants that to change - hopefully to tank-tops and bombshells.
Fed up with its poor international image, the government is spending £2million ($6m) on a tourism campaign to highlight the sexier side of Israel, reported The Daily Telegraph.
'We suffer from a problem of perception, that people outside Israel associate this place with conflict,' said Mr Aviv Shir-On, deputy director general of the Israeli foreign ministry.
'We are trying... to show people there is a much greater range to Israel beyond merely the conflict.'
Israel has long used images of bikini-clad models to lure holiday makers and inspire economic activity.
Now the Ministry of Tourism has paid an advertising agency to come up with a short and catchy film that pokes fun at Israeli football players as being distracted by pretty babes the beach.
The ministry also gave five popular US bloggers free holidays in Israel, in the hope that they will refer to it favourably in future posts.
The use of sex to sell Israel stirred criticism from feminists and orthodox Jews earlier this year when men's magazine Maxim published pictures of scantily-clad Israeli female soldiers in a publicity campaign funded by the Israeli consulate in New York.
But Mr Shir-On said: 'We have done a lot of surveys about Israel's image.
'The most negative results came back for the cohort of young men, aged from 18 to 35, so we took advice on how best to get a positive message across to them and the answer was by using sexy images.
'You only have to go to the beach in Tel Aviv in the summer to see how this is very much a reality of life in Israel.'
source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...42502,00.html? 
Come see our beaches & babes 
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