Clinton: J’lem can be most visited place on earth

Clinton said that if peace can be achieved, J'lem could become the most visited destination on the globe.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Bill Clinton 311 (photo credit: Eduardo Munoz / Reuters)
Bill Clinton 311
(photo credit: Eduardo Munoz / Reuters)
In a rousing endorsement for Israel’s capital, former US president Bill Clinton said at a tourism summit Tuesday that if peace can be achieved in the Middle East, Jerusalem could become the most visited destination on the globe.
“If there is comprehensive peace in the Middle East, Jerusalem might become the most visited place on Earth,” Clinton said at the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, according to Travel Weekly.
“People would want to see the center of Islam, Judaism and Christianity – even people from Asia who were not a part of any of the three traditions.”
According to the travel publication, Clinton highlighted Montenegro as an example of a country that had virtually no tourism industry when the Kosovo conflict came to an end, but he noted that once peace was declared there, international tourism soared 650 percent within five years.
“Serbian tourism also increased more than 10-fold between 2002 and 2010,” he said.
Clinton also noted that Croatia’s tourism increased 50% the year following the reintroduction of peace in Bosnia in 1995, rising an additional 300% in the following decade.
“I spent a lot of time when I was president trying to end wars, stop killing, make peace, promote understanding,” he said. “What I have seen is that peace works better than conflict and one of the best manifestations of that is travel and tourism.”