What I learned in New Zealand and how it can help Haifa

New Zealand is an island nation in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, far from everything, far even from itself – the crossing from the South Island to the North Island by ferry takes about 4 hours and another hour for loading and unloading. It has mountains, lakes, forests and animals, mainly birds and some unique (endemic) to the islands. It has relatively few people and has an indigenous minority, the Maori who were conquered by the British.

New Zealand is a tourist powerhouse. Despite the distance (and perhaps because of it), the average tourist stays on the islands for about 20 days compared to about 8 days in Israel. Since the number of tourists is similar in both countries and the daily expenditure of the average tourist - about $150 per day - is also similar, on average, income from tourism is more than twice as large in New Zealand as in Israel.

Now imagine that every tourist stays in Israel for one more day, and in Haifa. What is the economic significance? Even without five units of math, you can do a simple calculation: three million tourists, $150 per day, one more day in Haifa – leaving the city with about $450 million per year – in shekels, that comes out to almost 5 million more shekels every day. In words: five million shekels every day.

(In 2019, 4.5 million tourists arrived in Israel, in 2023 2.7 million arrived – 3 million is a good estimate)

Israel does not have the natural resources that New Zealand has. But what brings a tourist from Germany to fly over twenty hours to walk in a forest that has endless forests in his country? Why does a Canadian fly twenty hours to see lakes when Canada has more than half of the lakes on Earth?

So how did they do it in New Zealand and what can be implemented in Haifa?

Important note: You don't need to turn Haifa into Tel Aviv! In New Zealand, most businesses, including restaurants, close by six in the evening, and the few that didn't close by six in the evening closed at nine in the evening.

The first thing that stands out is the strict conservation of nature. The British brought rabbits and foxes and possums and all sorts of animals that don't belong to the island to provide them with entertainment, to the extent that hunting can be considered entertainment, the post-British New Zealand state is busy cleaning the islands of all animals that don't naturally belong there.

First stage in Haifa: cleaning the wadis and returning them to their natural state. The wadis are a natural treasure of the highest order and unique to Haifa, and their purpose is not to be a convenient channel for sewage lines. Wadi tourism can include sunrise and sunset tours, getting to know the flora with an emphasis on medicinal plants, bird watching tours, and scenic tours. Greater Haifa is blessed with all of them.

The next thing that stands out in New Zealand is the variety of attractions, with an emphasis on local uniqueness. In one place it's a sheep farm, in another it's a unique cave, in a third it's animal watching (well, whales would be hard to find in Haifa Bay), and in a fourth it's winery tours, and there's much more, with the connecting idea being that behind it there's a supporting government fund that invests in trails, parking lots, services, and communications, and encourages, through grants and subsidies, the establishment of organized tourism ventures with an emphasis on connecting tourism with sustainability, preserving Maori culture, and supporting family businesses.

And in Haifa: a combination of minority communities (Muslims, Christians, Baha'is, Druze, Haredi...) through food tours and cultural tours. A combination of accommodation in nature (ecological lodges) in close proximity to sites of interest such as the Caves of Ancient Man on the Carmel Coast. A base for departure for unique northern attractions - day tours to Acre, Rosh Hanikra and Achziv and even tours of battle sites from the Yehiam convoy in 1948 to Kibbutz Idamit in 2025.

New Zealand is the birthplace of bungee jumping, that terrifying jump. So maybe it's not worth planning bungee facilities at the 22nd Battalion Bridge, but Haifa certainly has something to offer in the field of extreme sports, both sea, air and land. Within a few minutes' drive there are two skydiving schools (in Shmarat and on the Carmel Beach). There is plenty of sea and challenging bike trails in the Carmel forests. Imagine a morning that starts on the banks of the Saadia River (yes, it's possible, plenty of clean water all year round), taking the cable car to the university, renting a dirt bike (and accompanying safety equipment), descending through Nahal Galim, or better yet, through Nahal Nader to Ein Kedem, including a dip in the spring, and from there to Tirat Carmel.

And where else can you do the Thousand Steps Race?

Developing local tourism can also include architectural, archeological and cultural tours. Haifa has museums like no other – the Maritime Museum and the Tikotin Museum.

New Zealand is a small, distant country that understood that tourism and natural resources are not contradictory but intertwined. Strict preservation of the values ​​of nature and landscape has created a green harmony of peace and tranquility that attracts tourists from all over the world to fly for dozens of hours in an uncomfortable flying dungeon in order to walk on trail after trail, see lake after lake, see the Waka and Wanaka. And maybe see a kiwi (the bird, not the fruit) and we need to teach how to do it in Haifa, how to keep the tourist who has already arrived in Israel for just one more day, and in Haifa. It's not easy, but it's possible.