Campaign branding Tel Aviv gay destination underway
Initiative launched in England, Germany aims to encourage members of gay and lesbian community to vacation in Israeli city
With an investment of NIS 340 million (about $88.1 million), an international marketing campaign is being launched to brand Tel Aviv as an international gay vacation destination. The campaign will be run in England and Germany, two locations with considerable gay and lesbian communities.
The campaign will include ads on gay community websites and magazines and will display everything the city has to offer by way of gay tourism.
Designated Facebook and Twitter pages will be created to support the effort and promote Tel Aviv as a new gay capital.
Photo: Ronen Akerman
A new website has also been built, Gay Tel Aviv. It starts off like with a sentence encapsulating the very essence of the campaign: ”Rising from the golden shores of the Mediterranean, stands one of the most intriguing and exciting new gay capitals of the world."
The decision to brand Tel Aviv as an international gay destination was supported by an international study conducted by Outnow, a leading company for consulting, branding, and marketing to the gay community. The company was responsible for branding Berlin as the gay capital of Europe, a move that significantly increased tourism to the city.
Etti Gargir, director of the VisitTLV organization, said that the Tourism Ministry and Tel Aviv Municipality invested NIS 170 million (about $44 million) each in the project.
"The increased discount flight capacity from England and Germany increases the capability of Tel Aviv to compete with other cities in Europe. This is in addition to the Outnow study that found Tel Aviv to be an attractive city to those who like culture, restaurants, nightlife, and shopping.
"The study also showed that the city is good for any budget. In other words, there is a range of entertainment and accommodation options at prices that anyone can afford," said Gargir.
About a month ago, Tel Aviv Municipality submitted an official application to host the International Gay Pride Parade in 2012.
The Tourism Ministry reported that it supports targeted marketing campaigns likely to increase tourism to Israel.
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