ByZEV STUB

As part of Israel’s efforts to bring the economy back to normalcy as the coronavirus pandemic seems to wind down, the Tourism Ministry on Tuesday unveiled its plan to restore inbound tourism.

Tourism from overseas dropped 81% in 2020, and although a third of Israeli hotels remain closed, hundreds of thousands of Israelis depend on visitors from abroad for their livelihoods, Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen (Blue and White) said in a press release.

According to the Tourism Ministry’s current timeline, which is subject to change, a limited number of foreign tour groups will be allowed to enter the country starting May 23, she said.

That will make it easy for relevant parties to track and monitor the groups and possibly update their protocols. Afterward, an unlimited number of tour groups will be allowed into the country starting June 1. If all goes well, individual travelers will be allowed to visit starting July 1.

All visitors will be required to have received two doses of a recognized coronavirus vaccine, which excludes Russia’s Sputnik, as well as waiting another week until the antibodies are fully developed in the body, Farkash-Hacohen said. A PCR test will be required to enter.

A certificate of recovery from the coronavirus will not be sufficient to enter, which effectively means that children under the age of 16 will not be allowed to enter the country at this point, she said.

The timeline likely will be updated as things evolve. It is already subject to dispute.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday said it recommends that the inbound tourism plan be delayed a month due to the new variants recently discovered.

To get travel rebooted, the Tourism Ministry is launching a promotional campaign in three large markets to attract tourists.

The campaign in Dubai, scheduled to launch Wednesday, includes a placement on one of the largest digital billboards in the world, a 175-meter screen seen by 750,000 drivers a day, Farkash-Hacohen said. In New York and London, a somewhat simpler billboard campaign will encourage travelers to put the past year behind them with the slogan, “2020 – Holy Moses. 2021 – Holy Land.” The overall goal is to promote Israel as a healthy destination for vaccinated tourists, she said.

The Tourism Ministry will also resume subsidized flights to Eilat, Farkash-Hacohen said. In past years, the ministry has paid foreign air carriers €60 per passenger for flights to Eilat, which costs about NIS 25 million but brings in hundreds of millions of shekels in economic activity, she said. The program helped increase weekly flights to Eilat about threefold and will be resumed in the coming weeks, she added.

Several international tourism events are planned for the summer to help raise interest, Farkash-Hacohen said. These include a joint Israel-UAE biking race, the Abraham Accords Cup; an international music festival in Timna Park in the Negev; and Tel Aviv Pride Week events. While Pride event activities will not be as large as in previous years, Tel Aviv will be one of the few cities around the world hosting such events in 2021, she said.