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Doron Nisim, Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
Tourism
Biblical landscape - A time for reflection
of its waters.
The changing statistics are alarming.
The Dead Sea is 50 kilometers long. Only forty years
ago it stretched 80 kilometers in length.The Ein Gedi
Spa, set in a magical spot at the foot of high cliffs which
stretch from the Dead Sea up to the Judean Desert, was
on the edge of the sea just 15 years ago. Now visitors to
the Spa have to take a small train down to the sea, as the
shoreline is several hundred meters away. This dramatic
disappearance act is starkly evident when looking upon
the mark made by British explorers on a stone in 1917
at the water’s edge. That marker is now more than 15
meters up a cliff and a road runs between the cliff and
the new shoreline.
So the Dead Sea shares with all its majestic and worthy
competitors, not only its incomparable beauty but its
fragility as it slowly succumbs to the appetitive nature
of man.
The slogan for the New7Wonders of Nature global
Internet contest is: “If we want to save anything, we first
need to truly appreciate it.”
If the Dead Sea is chosen as a Wonder of the World, this
will not only promote tourism to the region, but will
The Inbal Jerusalem Hotel
Spring-Summer 2011
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also raise awareness about the bleak reality facing the
body of water, getting smaller every year.
Some calculations show that the Dead Sea could dry
up by 2050. “It might be confined into a small pond,”
warned water expert Dureid Mahasneh, a former Jordan
Valley Authority chief. “Saving the Dead Sea is a regional
issue, and if you take the heritage, environmental
and historical importance, or even the geographical
importance, it is an international issue.”
The heat is on
And we are not talking about the souring temperatures
that prevail in the desert region of the Dead Sea. Israel’s
Tourism Ministry launched a website in eight languages
inviting surfers to vote for the ‘Lowest Wonder in the
World’. It provides information about the Dead Sea as
well as about religious, historical and cultural sites in the
area as well as health tourism, events and attractions.
The campaign was also mounted via social media,
namely Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – to encourage
internet surfers to vote.
Besides the site and a range of marketing campaigns,