Nir Shuver was appointed a board member at the Haifa Tourism Association • Entry interview for the position

(Live Here - Tourism) - Adding and building hotels, tourist attractions that will combine nature and the sea. Strengthening the food business and the culinary field (street food) for the development of tourism, opening the Foodtrucks complex in the Carmel forests, strengthening and developing the Vadi Nisnas market and the flea market, developing the German Colony and turning it into an attraction similar to the "Barcelona Ramblas", are some of the things Shuver intends to promote.

The city council last night (Monday 29/8/22) approved by a majority of votes, the appointment of city council member Nir Shuber, as a member of the board of the Haifa Tourism and Recreation Association, an association that, since the retirement of Yulia Straim, is hardly heard of. Shuber's appointment was accepted at a very significant time in the tourism issue, as next week the Champions League matches will begin in the Sami Ofer Stadium and thousands of tourists are expected to arrive in the city, and this is Haifa's testing time. in her.

"I will focus on marketing and promoting tourism in Haifa, my appointment at the right time in the right place"

In exactly one week, the 8th home games of the Champions League will begin, which will be held in Haifa. The announcement of the holding of the games in the city was received with short notice. How does the municipality intend and do you intend to act so that the tourists will stay and experience an experience that will leave them with a taste for more and a reason to return to visit Haifa in the future? How do you prepare for the big event?

voucher: This is a once-in-a-lifetime event and one that doesn't happen every day, and we received it on short notice. The main problem is that Haifa has 2,000-2,500 hotel rooms and there are no magic solutions. Therefore, the possibility was examined with the local shipping companies to dock a ship, so that it can house the thousands of fans that will come to Haifa, we are examining this fast option. The city administration is working on a big festival that will be around Sami Ofer that includes performances and giant screens, in several locations. We want to paint the city in celebration of an international festival in cooperation with the Maccabi Haifa club and I am sure that the opportunity we got in the city is a one-off and we need to do everything to leave a mark on Haifa as a tourist city as a fun city and a city worth staying in for more than a day and we are working hard on it.

"All the big conferences held in Eilat should be in Haifa"

As far as I'm concerned, the first priority, after the small businesses, is the tourism issue, says Nir Shuver, on the tourism issue we need to produce more hotel rooms and our competition should not be with any city in Israel, except Eilat. I think that all the big conferences that are held in Eilat should be in Haifa, on the sea, or on Mount Carmel and build huge hotels, with thousands of rooms, that can turn Haifa into a tourist city not only in sports.

I think it is necessary to continue to address the issue of tourism which was started by the late Mayor Aryeh Gural, he is the last one as far as I am concerned who thought of tourism, dreamed of tourism, promoted tourism and turned Haifa into a tourist city.

My focus will be on the establishment of tourist attractions, bungee attractions for young people, a giant wheel, an amusement park, a water park, etc. We need tourist attractions in the city that combine nature and the sea and we need to take advantage of the amazing thing that we have in the city of sea and nature.

Dirt and tourism don't go together, what do you do?

How do you intend to handle the issue of cleanliness, which is important first of all for the residents and no less important for the tourists who will come?
The dirt problem stems from a lack of manpower. The cleaning departments lack a lot of cleaning workers and that is the situation. I receive many requests that the city is very dirty. I hope they approve more standards soon. I contacted the mayor in an attempt to promote the issue and to clean focal points the center of Carmel, Hadar, Kiryat Eliezer, Kiryat Haim thorough cleaning using washing machines before the holidays, Rosh Hashanah and the film festival to start right now in September and see how we can as soon as possible so that the city will look good for at least a month and a half when there is a lot of traffic in the city of Haifa.

"In the past I thought that the cable car was an unnecessary tool - today I think differently, it is not unnecessary but not perfect"

How do you intend to leverage the cable car as a tourist attraction and what about the operation on Shabbat?
I contacted the Minister of Transportation Mira Michaeli, because she is the only one who can decide whether the cable car or the Carmelite can operate on Shabbat. They say that from a political point of view it is not profitable for her to make the decision and she dropped it.

In the past I didn't like this tool and thought it was unnecessary. Today I think differently: it is not unnecessary but it is not a perfect product. The cable cars transport the students to the university and the Technion, but they did not think and did not make a single stop for the residents of Neve Shanan. They could have solved it engineering, by building a bridge on Dori road, they could have made another station in one of the neighborhoods on the way to the university, they could have extended the cable car to Kiryat Haim to Ahi Eilat. There is a saying here to put the cable car at a check post and not connect Kiryat Haim - this Sad. They should also have made a further stop to the Carmel beach because it reaches the Carmel forests.

The Podtrax complex in the Carmel forests

I promote the Podtrax complex in the Carmel forests. It's going to be a complex at the top of the cable car, with shaded seating areas and an observation deck. People can go to the Hecht Museum, walk around the university, or go up for a wildlife viewing. In the lower part of the cable car there is Nahal Saadia. I hope that with the proposal to my order to budget Nahal Saadia for one and a half million shekels, a proposal that passed the city council and the budget committee, we can begin to see the pearl Nahal Saadia properly polished.

Three important topics will be on the agenda:

• Promotion of tourism and accommodation
• Street food
• the seashores

The issues I intend to promote first are the promotion of tourism and accommodation in the city, which is AIRBNB and the facilitation for apartment owners to do this, the promotion of the construction of hotels in cooperation with the city administration and the issuing of tenders and urban areas.

The second issue is support for small businesses: there are tourist attractions in the city that are not found in any other city in Israel or even in the world. We have the most amazing street food in the world. Perfect food such as Emil, Orion, the Elders, Bracha Sandwich, Khazan and more... We need to strengthen the food business and the culinary field that has been flourishing in the city in recent years and take advantage of it.

The third issue is our beaches, this is an issue that is close to my heart, we need to invest in them and upgrade the boardwalks, we need to open the Huldah Boardwalk after we reached an understanding with the Ministry of Defense, we need to act as quickly as possible and connect all the boardwalks together.

"We need to invest, develop and nurture the Wadi Nisnas market and the flea market and their surroundings"

What about the markets in Haifa, can they also be tourist hotspots like markets abroad?
You need patience in Talfiot market because big things happen there and in my opinion it is best that the municipality does not interfere there.

There are two markets that need to be taken care of: Wadi Nisnas and the flea market. These are markets where there is no shade, so I want to promote the issue of shading in these markets. Although this is a small thing, it is of great significance, because there cannot be such a situation that in a country as hot as ours, people will walk around the markets in the heat without a shaded place.

We need to develop tourism around Wadi Nisnas and Hadar Carmel and make a tourist train. You should try to think outside the box - how to contribute to the start of the economy and tourism in Wadi. On Shabbat we also have the flea market that has been operating for over 20 years and is one of the special markets in Israel, but it is not pleasant, there is no food, no shade, no culture and entertainment, the sidewalks are not sidewalks. Something should be done to allow band and orchestra performances and events to place benches and shaded places.

We have seen benches and shades in Talpiot and Kiryat Eliezer market that are just decorations and are ineffective, do not protect from heat and certainly not from rain, what is the logic?

Shaver" I agree that there is poor planning and it has already been done, but there are other tourist points that need to be addressed: there is Haifa's Stairway District. We are working on the Stairway District 2 festival, after the success of the first, with a budget of half a million shekels. This is a festival in which artists Jews and Arabs present their creations in the quarter and we divide the budget between them. I think it is an equal attraction in Haifa, which starts in Ypa Nof and ends in Paris Square.

My vision: to turn the German colony into an attraction similar to the "Rambles of Barcelona"

The German colony should be like the Ramblas in Barcelona: closed to vehicles, with lots of shade and trees, stalls, atmosphere and music and maybe incorporate a tourist train. We need to change our thinking on this issue, because 1.7 million tourists a year come to the German colony and Baha'is, who come, take pictures and run away. I want to leave them in Haifa to walk around, shop and stay in hotels in the city. Tourism should be promoted as quickly as possible.