Canadian children last week boarded a bus to travel to the Holy Land – so to speak – in a new tourism campaign by the State of Israel.
First graders from the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School helped kick off the first visit by the big bus that is being used to promote travel to the Jewish State. A big luxury coach decorated with images of Israel will ferry passengers between downtown hotels and Toronto's Pearson International Airport for the next four months.
The $250,000 campaign is a pilot project and if successful, will be expanded to other North American cities. Thus far, tourism to Israel has risen by 17 percent since January, over 2009. A record number has arrived from Canada, a total of 75,000 to 80,000 tourists all told thus far this year.
“There's a little bit of Israel in all of us,” proclaims a panel on each side of the bus, with images of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “Come find the Israel in you.”