IBB Throughout Israel

Following the success of the project to grade rural accommodation units (zimmers) in the Galilee – an initiative of the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee – Israel Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov has decided to expand the process of grading zimmers (bed and breakfast accommodation units) to the rest of Israel, accepting bed and breakfast units into the framework of IBB (Israel Bed and Breakfast). Within the last decade, the rural tourism and zimmers industries recorded significant growth. About 9,000 zimmers operate in Israel and mainly attract domestic tourism during weekends, holidays and vacations and operate with an annual occupancy rate of 38 percent. As part of the development to bring prosperity to peripheral areas, the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee’s policy identified a need to exploit the potential of rural accommodation both for domestic and incoming tourism and, as a result, the IBB initiative was developed, which is a grading system that serves as an address for inquiries and provides answers for every tourist that wishes to stay in zimmers. The IBB grading system checks 140 different criteria in line with international norms and grades the rooms according to A, B, and C standards, thus determining the level of quality and service. The criteria include, among others: type of mattress/pillow, cleaning in non-conventional areas, distance of the zimmers from a chicken coop or cow shed, size of room, noise from the air conditioning, and credible advertising/price correspondence. The zimmer owners participate in a workshop and a consultant working on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism checks the rooms. At the end of the process, the zimmers are connected to an Internet system that synchronizes online reservations, the zimmer’s grading, price per night, nearby attractions and more.
“The goal of the Ministry of Tourism is to bring an additional one million tourists to Israel within three years, with marketing focused on particular market sectors, primarily Evangelical Christians and Jews,” says Israel Minister of Tourism Stas Mesizhnikov. “The expansion of the IBB project from the Northern Galilee to the rest of the country will contribute to Israel’s tourism project generate an increase in the demand that will increase jobs in peripheral areas of the country, where most of the tourism is concentrated.”
According to Galilee Development Authority Director Moshe Davidovich: “Our ability to identify the needs of the ground, given that we are the executive arm of a government ministry based in the area in which we work, enables us to initiate new projects, lead the product into maturity and then transfer it over to the state. Adopting the project throughout Israel testifies to the quality of the product that we have developed.”

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