Dozens of countries and Israeli tourism organizations will participate in IMTM 2009, the international tourism fair to be held on February 11-12 in the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds

Participating in the fair for the first time: Brazil, Panama, Latvia and Montenegro

Tourism representatives from dozens of countries will be coming to Israel to participate in IMTM 2009, Israel's annual international tourism fair, among them Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Georgia, Romania, Greece, and Cyprus. Participating in the fair this year for the first time will be: Brazil, Panama, Latvia and Montenegro.

Many countries see the fair as being very important, and have therefore increased their display area and marketing activities for greater prominence. In addition, many Israeli tourism and recreation organizations will be participating.

Professional conferences will be held in the course of the fair, including meeting on the subject of human resources and the annual conference of the Academic Studies Center and the Derby University extension, this year on the subject of: "Tourism in Israel in the shadow of the crisis - leveraged, grow and prosper".

Entry to the fair is free of charge.

Eyal Shmueli, publisher and editor in chief of Israel Travel News, one of the initiators of IMTM, says: "Each year, the number of countries wanting to participate in the fair increases, as does the number of visitors. In addition, we receive many requests from travel agents and tour operators from abroad who want to attend the fair, meet and get to know Israeli professionals, work with them and do deals. All this illustrates the growing faith in Israel, with many travelers choosing specifically to come here for their vacation, while on the other hand the Israeli tourist continues to vacation in Israel and abroad despite the economic situation."

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IMTM is the central annual event of the tourism branch in Israel, and it is intended to encourage incoming, outgoing and domestic tourism in Israel, and increase cooperation with many countries around the world. The fair is being held for the 15th consecutive year.

Alongside the foreign countries, Israeli representatives are also participating in the fair - tourism associations from all around the country, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and service providers in the field of tourism.

The fair is organized by Ortra Ltd. and Israel Travel News, and is sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, the Israel Hotels Association, the Israel Tourist and Travel Agents Association and the Tel Aviv - Jaffa Tourism Association.

For further details