Israel aims for 5 million tourists by 2011

On the heels of an improved security environment with the number of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants down sharply, tourism rose to a five-year high of 1.92 million people in 2005. Ministry officials expect at least 2.5 million people in 2006, near the record 2.7 million in 2000.

Officials told a news conference that tourism to such sites as the holy city of Jerusalem, the spa-heavy Dead Sea, the Galilee and Red Sea resort city Eilat had not been marketed well in the past.

A panel of business and tourism industry leaders unveiled its recommendations on how to raise tourism including building more hotels and increasing the number of flights from regular and low-cost carriers.

Tourism Minister Abraham Hirschson said that every 1 million tourists account for 40,000 tourist-related jobs and bring in $2.2 billion in revenues.

He said he supported all the panel's recommendations, which also included improvements in tourism infrastructure, and said it was likely the ministry's budget would be increased.

"Tourism is important to Israel's economy," he said. "The more tourists, the less unemployment."

Hirschson has been named by analysts, media reports and industry executives as the favoured candidate for finance minister in the new government now being formed, but he declined to confirm it.

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He rejected the notion that 5 million foreign tourists by 2011 was overly ambitious, saying that tourism would jump in 2008 for the 60th anniversary of Israeli statehood.

"People will come from the United States and Europe, which is three to three and a half hours away," he said, also expecting an increase in tourists from South America.

Tourism from Russia is likely to soar now that it will become easier for Russians to get entry visas into Israel, Hirschson noted.

As part of a plan initiated last year with the backing of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the ministry aims to boost the number of flights to Israel.

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines has started non-stop daily flights between Atlanta and Tel Aviv, while Lufthansa has shifted to larger aircraft, increasing the number of seats.

Eli Cohen, director general of the Tourism Ministry, noted that demand from Europe was high.

But even with all the extra flights, Cohen said, tourists need places to stay.

"In a few years, there will be a lack of hotel rooms," he told Reuters after the news conference.

At present, Israel has nearly 60,000 hotel rooms, enough to accommodate up to 3.5 million people annually.

Cohen said the ministry wants another 10,000 rooms added in the next five to six years in Jerusalem, in the north and in the south -- Eilat and the Dead Sea.

He said a number of large global hotel chains, including Club Mediterranee , had already applied to build more hotels.

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