Giora Israel, Senior Vice President ~ Port and Destination Development

Giora Israel, Senior Vice President Port & Destination Development, Carnival Corporation, is a veteran of the hotel, marine parks, and cruise industries. A graduate of Tadmor Hotel College in Israel, he served as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Tel Aviv Hilton and as General Manager of hotel resorts in Israel & The Bahamas.

He also developed & managed two marine parks and tourist attractions in The Bahamas and in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, before becoming a cruise industry consultant in 1990.

In 1992, he joined Carnival Corporation as Director of Special Projects where he engaged in a variety of international activities for the line in Europe and other parts of the world. This included an assignment in Greece as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing of Epirotiki.

From 1998 until 2008 Mr. Israel served as Vice President Strategic Planning at Carnival Corporation and PLC. In that capacity Mr. Israel was involved with Carnival’s international expansion. Other responsibilities included strategic developments relating to ports development, cruise operation and other areas of Carnival, the world largest cruise company.

In late 2008 Mr. Israel was promoted to his current position, further emphasizing the strategic importance of cruise destination & cruise development, a key element in Carnival’s continuing growth and expansion for the years to come. In addition Mr. Israel remains involved in key strategic initiative for the corporation in various developmental and operational areas.

Mr. Israel also serves as the President of Carnival Ports Inc., as well as the President of four ports operated by Carnival Corporation: Long Beach Cruise Terminal (California), Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), Grand Turk Cruise Center (Turks and Caicos Islands), and Mahogany Bay (Roatan, Honduras).

Mr. Israel has served as a speaker in many international forums on tourism and the cruise industry in over a dozen countries. He has also been a frequent guest speaker at various universities, including the University of the West Indies, Barry University, University of Yucatan and Florida International University (both at the Hotel Management school and the FIU MBA program) and served as a visiting fellow at both the Oxford and Cambridge Seatrade Cruise Academy.

Mr. Israel serves on the MBA school advisory boards of both Barry University in Miami and Purdue University in Chicago.

Mr. Israel is Member of the board of Trustees of the Miami Chamber of Commerce and has served on numerous civic and industry boards in the U.S., Caribbean and Central America.

Mr. Israel, together with Dr. Lawrence Miller, formally a professor at FIU, co-authored the first dictionary of the cruise industry, which was published in London in 1999.