Israel launches tourism restoration program
JERUSALEM. KAZINFORM - Israel has launched a program to rehabilitate and grow the country's tourism industry, which was severely damaged by the coronavirus crisis, the country's Ministry of Tourism said on Wednesday, Xinhua reports.
The plan includes an international advertising campaign to encourage tourists to visit Israel, focusing on New York and London, as well as the United Arab Emirates, with which Israel signed an historic normalization agreement in September 2020.
Another step in the program is to hold cultural, sports and leisure events in Israel to promote tourism, intended to international potential tourists.
The plan also includes the resumption of international flights to the southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat.
Earlier in April, Israel said it would allow vaccinated tourist groups to enter the country from May 23.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a fall of 98.5 percent in foreign tourist arrivals to Israel during the first two months of 2021, according to the country's Central Bureau of Statistics.
Only 9,900 tourists visited Israel in January-February this year, while the figure was 652,400 in the same period of 2020, just before the pandemic broke out in the country.
Israel's Minister of Tourism Orit Farkash-Hacohen said that «the program will serve as a growth engine to revive the tourism industry and the Israeli economy in a responsible and balanced manner.»
She added that «it is our time to utilize Israel's huge advantage as a health-safe destination, and harness it for the benefit of our empty coffers and the tourism industry, which includes hundreds of thousands of workers.»