Pyotr Lyukimson, Israel, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
In November and December, more than 30,000 demobilized Israeli soldiers are sent to travel abroad. It is a long-standing Israeli tradition: having served for two or three years in the army, boys and girls are sent to various exotic countries for 8-10 months to "clear their mind" and to gain new experiences before going to college. For a long time the Israeli youth considered India (though their mind was rather blurred by drugs that cleaned there) the most popular place for such a "mind cleaning". In recent years, the leadership in this regard has been held by Latin America, but due to the price increase Israeli demobilized soldiers are more often sent to South-east Asia.
The sensation of this year was the appearance of Georgia in the list of the countries chosen by the Israelis. Israeli travel agents actively promote this country, arguing that the landscapes there are no less beautiful and majestic than the landscapes of Latin America; according to them, there is a huge variety of tours there, including extreme ones, and this country is quite exotic. If Georgia is not enough for former Israeli soldiers, the agency proposes to continue the journey in Armenia, where there are also a lot of different places to see.
Unfortunately, Azerbaijan is not included in the list of countries recommended to Israelis for visiting (although, no doubt, there are as many unique natural areas in Azerbaijan as in the two neighboring republics). The intensive development of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations still has somehow only barely touched the sphere of tourism. There were a lot of initiatives taken in this regard in 2012 but none of them has borne fruit yet.
