Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky launched a tourism
campaign last week aimed at the chareidi sector with the
cooperation of the City of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Hotel
Association and the Ministry of Tourism.
During the campaign, guests at glatt kosher hotels will be
able to take advantage of innumerable restaurants and
attractions appropriate for family vacations along with a 50
percent discount on admission to fascinating sites, including
a range of activities for children.
Mayor Lupoliansky said the city's sites need no introduction
to the chareidi sector which visits Jerusalem often,
stressing that the campaign is intended to encourage the
chareidi public to come to the city and take advantage of its
holy sites and vacation opportunities.
Yehonaton Harpaz, director of the Jerusalem Hotel
Association, said although the number of overnight stays in
hotels remains far below pre-intifada levels, there has been
an noticeable upswing in recent months. In June, for example,
there were 65,000 overnight stays compared to only 41,500 in
June of last year and a similar figure two years ago. Many of
the stays, he noted, are at glatt hotels. "Jerusalem has a
central place in the chareidi sector's vacation habits," said
Harpaz, attributing this in part to the chareidi public's
strong faith in the Jerusalem Rabbinate's standards of
kashrus.
The City of Jerusalem's Department for Torah Culture, headed
by Rabbi Gavriel Stauber, has invested considerable efforts
in providing vacationing chareidi families as many
opportunities in keeping with the stringent mitzvah
observers' expectations of modesty and propriety. This is the
second year the department has made special arrangements to
draw chareidi tourists, including activities and tours at
various hotels in keeping with halocho.
A new brochure is now available offering a large mass of
concentrated information for the chareidi tourist, including
details on a large range of accommodation options.
Stauber says the chareidi consumer bases the selection of
vacation destinations on low prices and the range of
activities available for children. This year Jerusalem is
offering an inexpensive, subsidized tourism package that
includes a large selection of free activities at the hotels
and a 50 percent discount at various sites using a special
coupon booklet. "These factors significantly reduce the cost
of a vacation package for a chareidi family, making it very
worthwhile and full of surprises," says Stauber.
He also thanked all those who assisted in making the wide-
scale campaign possible, including Mayor Lupoliansky, Torah
Culture Commissioner Rabbi Avrohom Finer, Culture Department
Director Oded Feldman and the various hotels.
