Israel Active

Dutch tourist agency Holiday Travel this week inaugurated a charter route between Schiphol Airport Amsterdam and Uvda Airport. It expects 8,000 Dutch tourists to use the charter service during the 2011-12 winter tourist season.

The German software company’s Israeli R&D Centre is the front line of the company, where new ideas are tested out and turned into technology.

Israel’s second-largest food & beverage company has teamed up with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to bring Strauss Water’s high-tech, environmentally friendly purification products and services to the UK and Ireland. The intention is to then expand the venture into to France, Australia and South Africa.

Israel’s foreign currency reserves rose by over half a billion dollars during October.

Sofinnova Ventures is raising a new $200 million fund to invest in young Israeli IT, communications, mobile, software, and digital media companies.

October saw a sudden surge in visitors through the port of Haifa from Cruise ships – nearly as many as the whole of 2010. Cruise companies have been avoiding the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia.

In a survey of 10,000 Russians, National Geographic magazine reported that the Jewish State was their most popular destination after Italy. 357,000 Russians have visited Israel so far in 2011.

Israel’s Orbit Technologies has won a NIS 4.5 million services and support contract for its satellite communications systems with a leading European navy.

Israel’s AnyClip Media’s agreement with Warner Bros is its 3rd deal with Hollywood. AnyClip’s technology enables users to find any moment from any movie in its database.

That’s the amount of wine that tiny Israel produces from its 300 wineries. And the quality is superb. As Ezekiel prophesised “Mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My people Israel; for they will soon come.”