Yoni Shapira - Tourism: Turning Experiences into Memories

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In this episode, Yoni Shapira shares his rich, decades long involvement in tourism. He recalls how, as an oceanography student, he entered into this field as well as his long model making career or “life in miniature” at Mini Israel and elsewhere. Most importantly, we talked about the split between Guides focused on Incoming Tourism and those who work with the Domestic Tourism market and how this led to the creation of the organization Moreshet Derech or the Israeli Incoming Tour Guide Association that Yoni currently heads. We spoke about the difficulties of this position in unprecedented times and the organization’s attempts to lobby for compensation for tour guides. As part of this we also had an in-depth discussion on the difference between incoming and domestic tourism and whether domestic tourism should rightly even be considered tourism. We discussed how guiding Israelis requires a completely different skill set from guiding foreigners and why it can often be so challenging in practice. Lastly, among his many talents Yoni is an excellent researcher and scholar and he recounted how he discovered the hotel where Mark Twain was based in Jerusalem in 1867 and how this was the impetus for his book “Tourists, Travelers, and Hotels in 19th-Century Jerusalem.” You can reach him through LinkedIn or by email at: [e-mail]