A growing number of travel companies are offering trips to Jewish heritage sites in Asia.
Luxury company Crystal Cruises has launched a range of new onshore visits at Jewish historical sites around the world, including in Shanghai and Mumbai, India; while Graham Elsom, managing director at Concorde Travel, a Hong Kong travel agency specialising in unusual trips, says interest in Jewish-themed tours is as strong as ever.
Mimi Weisband, vice-president of public relations at Crystal Cruises, says that they have increased the number of boutique, niche tours over the years and, after the first Jewish heritage tour they launched several years ago was so popular, they asked tour operators to develop more.
'While we don't think travellers are going to go on Crystal for religious tourism, we feel that these tours have historical significance that would appeal to Jewish and non-Jewish guests,' she says.
'For Jewish guests, it does help connect them to destinations in a more intimate way.'
Crystal Cruises' Jewish heritage trip in Mumbai includes visits to the Knesseth Eliahod Synagogue, popularly known as the Fort Synagogue, the David Sassoon Library, the Magen David Synagogue, which was the first Baghdadi Synagogue constructed in Mumbai, and the Magen Hassidin Synagogue, in which virtually all of Mumbai's Jewish marriages and bar mitzvahs are celebrated.