Article: In the past decades, Israelis have traveled to Turkey, a Muslim country north of Israel, but few Turks have visited Israel. (Kids: find Turkey and Israel on a map). 2008 was the record year for Israeli travel to Turkey, with over half a million Israelis travelling there. That same year, only 17,253 Turks visited Israel. However, numbers are up. In 2013, 24,385 Turks visited Israel, including day visitors and cruise tourists. Israel's Ministry of Tourism has not invested in promoting tourism to Israel, so many don't know why the sudden upsurge. One reason may be because StandWithUs, an Israel education organization (which I work for) sought to improve Israel's image in the world. They sent prominent figures from around the world on an Instragram social networking tour of Israel. A famous Turkish couple went on the tour and returned to Turkey to post beautiful photos of Israel. Since then, tourism has spiked (though not necessarily this summer)! Lesson learned: you never know who will respond to your positive marketing of Israel! Kids: what are some ways you can positively market Israel?
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