Israel Tourism Ministry announces 12 foreign movie productions to be filmed in Holy Land
Besides the positive economic impact on the film industry, the initiative could lead to increased tourism
The Tourism Ministry announced that 12 foreign films will be shot in Israel, through the “Fund for the Promotion of Foreign Productions” initiative, launched by several government ministries in July.
The initiative is a cooperative attempt by Israel’s Ministries of Finance, Culture and Sports, Economy and Industry, Foreign Affairs and Tourism, to raise Israel’s profile as a center for feature filmmaking.
The ministries set apart 45 million shekels (over $13 million) toward foreign movie and TV production in Israel over the next two years, with today’s announcement representing the initiative’s first production approvals.
According to the Tourism Ministry, the initiative received 19 requests worth 51 million shekels ($15 million), which represents 2.2 times the budget allocated for the year. The submitted applications will result in 172 million shekels (over $50 million) invested in the Israeli film industry. The Investment Authority also announced its intention to continue the program into 2023.
Besides the positive economic impact on the film industry, it is believed the initiative could lead to increased tourism, as some movie-goers desire to visit the locations where movies were created.
The Tourism Ministry’s Marketing and Administration Director Pini Shani told the media that foreign movie productions help present Israel as an attractive tourism destination. According to Shani, the productions will offer broad exposure to Israel, in an attractive way, for many different audiences around the world.
“The budgets that the Tourism Ministry allocated to support these foreign productions have justified the investment, and more so,” Shani said.
Investment and Development Authority Director Shlomo Attias, who serves as the head of the committee that selects the winning bids for production, said he hopes “our assistance will bring more and more foreign production companies to invest in Israel.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
