עברית
Western Galilee Now, a small business consortium, was established with the aim of jointly promoting the cultural, historical, and geographical wealth of the region, and aims to promote the culture of wine and spirits, food, local produce, and traditional crafts in combination with the culture of travel, on its magnificent landscapes connecting the mountain and the sea.
The consortium promotes proactive activities of meetings, workshops, dinners, wine tours, nature trips, between villages including meetings with people and thematic weekends that are all connoisseurs in their concept, high-quality, and tailored to the demands of the audience, independent or organized, private or business from Israel and abroad.
The unique consortium consists of over 90 members, small business owners, mostly family-owned, social businesses that promote social tourism or kibbutzim with a tourism orientation that meet predetermined standards of service and product quality.
The consortium works in collaboration with organizations involved in tourism in the region, including the Ministry of Tourism, with councils and municipalities, and with hoteliers and B&B owners.
The association produces several major events and festivals per year:
- Wine Time ― Wine Fair
- Taste of the Galilee ― Farmers’ Market & Local Produce Fair
- Spring Festival
- JulyArt ― July Dedicated to Culture & Art
- Winter Festival
During the year the consortium coordinates extensive activities in the area, with a variety of wonderful events for couples, friends, and the whole family, combined with the various boutique businesses in the area, including food workshops with chefs, art and craft workshops with Galilean artists, a concert combined with a trip, culinary tours, poetry and storytelling evenings, musical performances, festive meals and banquets, nature and art tours, tours with guides, and more! Everything is combined with the magnificent landscapes of the Galilee spread between Mount Meron and the Mediterranean Sea.
The consortium’s website offers a variety of organized tour options, independent tours, recipes, recommendations for places to stay, a calendar of events, and more in Hebrew and English. Join our monthly newsletter and stay updated.
If you would like to purchase pre-made packages or assemble a package of fine and diverse Galilean products, visit our store ― Taste the Galilee.
The consortium is mainly supported by donations from the JNF-USA Foundation, alongside membership dues, Taste of the Galilee Project on behalf of the Dallas-Western Galilee Partnership, and the Jewish Agency.
In March 2016, the organizations JNF-USA and Western Galilee Now ― a small business consortium opened a comprehensive Tourist Information Center in the heart of the Old City of Akko in a beautiful building that has undergone a meticulous preservation process, at a cost of approximately $1 million, with the aim of serving as a gateway to the Western Galilee. Western Galilee Now was chosen to manage it. They are responsible for the ongoing management of the center, promoting recommendations for tourist routes, managing the content offered in the area, and exposing the general public to the activities offered in the Western Galilee region. The Information Center provides services for building personalized tourist routes, recommendations for cultural and artistic activities, a variety of activities in nature, delicious recommendations for special culinary experiences, assistance in finding restaurants, places to relax, B&Bs and hotels, as well as Internet services for tourists and detailed information about the tourism business in the Western Galilee. At the center, visitors are exposed to art and local products made by tourists from the region ― wines from boutique wineries, boutique honey, glass and iron art by artists, and even local tourism and culinary books.
The Information Center presents temporary exhibitions of artists from the Galilee in the The Space Gallery.
JNF-USA is a non-profit organization, operating for 117 years, and annually receives donations of more than $100 million for the State of Israel, with many of the donations intended for realizing the organization’s vision for the development of the Negev and the Galilee, their village and promotion, and the development of tourism in the region.
JNF-USA works, among other things, to promote tourism in the peripheral areas of Israel, including the Negev region in the south and the Galilee region in the north. The organization operates in a variety of areas: education, health, housing, employment, tourism as a lever for economic growth, work with people with disabilities, and more.
According to Michal Shiloah Galnoor, CEO of the Western Galilee Now Small Business Consortium, “After years of developing the Negev, JNF wrote a plan for the development of the Galilee Go North Initiative and the Western Galilee Now Small Business Consortium was the first stake they drove into the Western Galilee, and for that I am very proud. Many of the donors come back to our region again and awareness of the tourism potential in the Western Galilee is growing. I am proud to lead Western Galilee Now businesses alongside an excellent board of directors and staff, for over 7 years, and to be part of the JNF-USA family, which includes people with big hearts who see Israel as their second home. This is an organization that invests days and nights and enormous funds in developing everything the region needs to thrive ― education, diverse projects that provide solutions for people with disabilities, medicine, infrastructure, and many other issues, and of course tourism as a regional economic lever that is a significant source of employment.”
So come taste, experience, and discover ― it’s time for the Western Galilee!
