Why Israel isn't a preferred destination for millennials


READ MORE

Winning the 2018 Eurovision was a heady moment for Israelis. They know perfectly well that Israel’s image in the world is a problem, but on the other hand, Israel also hosted the three-day 2018 European judo championship in April, and the Giro d’Italia international cycling race in May. In June, Argentina’s soccer team – shortlisted for World Cup champion – will be visiting for a friendly match, and next year Eurovision will be held right here in Jerusalem.


Israelis may fondly think that the world is looking at Israel in a more positive way, but a vast study indicates that at least among millennials, that isn’t so.


The Best Countries index ranks Israel 30th out of 80 countries, unchanged from 2017. The index is a ranking and analysis project by U.S. News World Report, BAV – a division of YR (formerly known as Young Rubicam), and the Wharton School of business. It is based on polling of 21,000 people in four regions: the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.


The problem is when the opinion of millennials is measured separately, Israel’s ranking falls, a lot.


The Israeli nonprofit association Vibe Israel (which seeks to improve Israel’s image in the world) commissioned BAV and Prof. David Reibstein of Wharton to isolate the millennial’s outlook from that massive study. Among millennials in 2018, Israel ranked 49th out of 80 countries. (In 2017, millennials ranked Israel in 50th place.)



We’ve got more newsletters we think you’ll find interesting.


Click here



Please try again later.




The email address you have provided is already registered.


Close


Rank in the Best Countries index is based on 65 characteristics divided into nine categories, one being adventure – which U.S. News defines as meaning to what degree the respondent finds a given country “friendly, fun, pleasant climate, scenic, sexy.” Cultural influence, another criterion, means “culturally significant in terms of entertainment, fashionable, happy, has an influential culture, modern, prestigious, trendy”; and there’s “Movers” – “different, distinctive, dynamic, unique.”


In the criterion of “entrepreneurship,” Israel ranked 25th among the general public and 31st among the millennials.


When it comes to “open for business” (“bureaucratic, cheap manufacturing costs, [not] corrupt, favorable tax environment, transparent government practices”), Israel ranked 64th among the general public and last among the millennials.


In the heritage category, (culturally accessible, rich history, great food, many cultural attractions), Israel ranked 29th among the general public and 43rd among millennials. One might think that given Israel’s cultural, religious and historical assets, it would rank higher. Joanna Landau, founder of Vibe Israel, thinks the low figures stem from utter ignorance of Israel, which in turn is the fault of the Israeli government and the Jewish community for focusing too much on the Palestinian issue and not focusing enough on promoting business, culture and Israel’s strong points as an attractive, relevant destination.


Militancy is not an attraction


What are Israel’s strong points and weak points in millennial eyes? Strong points include militancy (it ranked 3rd of the 80 countries), having religious influence (5), unique (9) and having economic influence (15). But Israel scored very poorly in the very characteristics that might attract people: friendliness (80), cultural accessibility (79), economic convenience (78) and easy mobility (78).


In the “power” category (leader, economically influential, politically influential, strong international alliances, strong military), Israel ranked 8th of the 80 countries among the general public and 9th among millennials, unchanged from last year.


Landau points out that the characteristics attributed to a powerful country aren’t necessarily things millennials appreciate: A strong army, a strong economy and a strong government are not their favorite qualities. In the wake of the global economic crisis of 2008, global warming, international terrorism and the disintegration of entire states in the Middle East, along with the power of the banks vis-à-vis the small citizen in many countries around the world, are among the factors that have become a feature of military and economic power.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Canadian expected to be aboard Russia's 1st manned space mission since rocket failure

READ MORE The first manned mission to the International Space Station since a Russian rocket failed to launch successfully earlier this month may take off on Dec. 3, space agency Roscosmos said on Wednesday. And the crew is expected to include Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, Agence France-Press reported. A Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronaut were forced to abort their mission on Oct. 11 and perform an emergency landing after a launch accident that Roscomos said was caused by a faulty sensor. The accident was the first serious launch problem experienced by a manned Soyuz space mission since 1983, when a crew narrowly escaped before a launch pad explosion. Sergei Krikalyov, a senior Roscosmos official, was quoted by state news agency Tass as saying the next manned launch had been planned for mid-December, but that Russia was trying to bring the date forward so that the ISS is not briefly left without a crew. “The industry is making significant efforts to move the launch t...
Read more

Getting the dope on pot stocks is becoming easier as media groups invest in content: Don Pittis

Image
READ MORE “What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s happening,” goes the ’70s rock anthem. Part of the catchiness of the lyric — from the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar  — was that in that era the term “buzz” had developed a second spicy meaning. It described the high that people got from smoking cannabis. In the 1970s, the magazine High Times was a brand new title keeping an eye on the illegal but growing business of marijuana pricing and sales. It ran centrefolds of glistening pot plants and of an apartment filled to the windows with what the magazine insisted was an entire ton of cannabis. Now some of Canada’s most staid media voices are looking for ways to go toe to toe with High Times and its U.S. competitors, hoping to profit from Canada’s global head start in legal recreational cannabis. But when it comes to making a killing from spreading the buzz on the cannabis biz, to q...
Read more

Toronto man denies conspiring with Marvel CEO in alleged hate mail scheme

Image
READ MORE A Toronto man accused of conspiring with the head of Marvel Entertainment in a bizarre hate mail campaign against his wealthy former employer has denied any role in the alleged scheme. David Smith, along with Marvel CEO Isaac (Ike) Perlmutter, is the target of a slander lawsuit launched earlier this year by Canadian businessman Harold Peerenboom. Now Smith — a former employee of Peerenboom’s Toronto-based executive search firm, Mandrake Management — has filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. civil suit. It’s the latest development in the years-long legal battle between Peerenboom and Perlmutter, a notoriously reclusive American billionaire and personal friend of U.S. President Donald Trump. The hate mail campaign, which ran   between 2012 to 2015, saw anonymous letters falsely accusing Peerenboom of being a child molester, murderer and anti-Semite...
Read more