The Israeli pavilion at the FITUR 2025 tourism fair, one of the most important in the world and taking place in Madrid until Sunday, is hosting 25 companies from the sector that are trying to take advantage of the ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as the Christian Jubilee of 2025, to bring foreign tourists back to the streets of Israel after fifteen months of war.

The pavilion was inaugurated in the presence of two representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, Mijael Itzhakov, head of the cabinet of Minister Haim Katz, and Yosef Penjos, director of Seminars, Training Workshops and Exhibitions. In a brief ceremony where he cut a ribbon to enter the pavilion, the spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in Spain, Tal Itzhakov, stressed that Israel remains “a great unknown” even though “few countries are talked about more in the media, especially since October 7”. And he said that Israel is “a country where faith, history and nature intertwine, creating a unique experience for those who visit it,” “the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the cradle of cities and places linked to the awakening of civilization in the Middle East”.

The Israeli exhibition has sparked the interest of an industry, that of religious pilgrimage, which in 2025 commemorates a new Christian Jubilee, and aspires to move millions of people along the main religious routes of the world. Experts believe that 17% of global tourism (about 1.400 billion people a year) responds to this motivation, and the Holy Land should not be left out. Not now that the ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza seem to put an end to the war.

The Uruguayan-Israeli Juan Fridman, president of the Genesis Tours company and a veteran of pilgrimage tourism, reminded Aurora that in Israel there are two Jubilee Gates, one at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the other at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. There is also the one at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. For Christian believers, crossing them in the Jubilee Year means the absolution of all their sins.

“Pilgrimage tourism is defined as that in which the traveller travels for religious reasons, although it may include other reasons. “When we talk about religious tourism, it is not merely a title to make it seem more interesting, but we know for sure what the pilgrim wants to receive, what he wants to visit or do, and in this way we carefully prepare each of the days that comprise the pilgrimage