Paying Michelin Guide to Help Promote Your Tourism Can Be a Messy Business
Photo Credit: People sitting on chairs on a street in Jaffa, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Source: Unsplash / Yaroslav Lutsky
Skift Take
Cities are paying for Michelin to come, but people are divided on what this means for their restaurants. As the Michelin Guide expands with the help of tourism boards around the world, controversies continue around the guide's role in tourism marketing.
Israel's Tel Aviv could be the next stop for a Michelin Guide, following a series of inaugural editions released around different corners of the world last year. After years of planning, the Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz announced February 1 that the ministry would be moving forward with bringing the guide to the country for the first time.
The hoopla didn't come without its struggles. The minister previously received a slew of critiques from top chefs around the country when the estimated 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) agreement was called back into reconsideration for whether it was the best use of tax money for Israeli citizens. While some chefs and restauranteurs see the Michelin as "a crazy engine" that drives "enormous effects" on tourism, others would rather decide what and when they eat without the stars' influence.
Allegations of bias and elitism have long surrounded Michelin Guide's activities across the world. Its criteria and selections
