Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov on Sunday, signed a bilateral tourism agreement with his counterpart from India , Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, who is in Israel on a four-day visit at the head of a delegation that includes state ministers, members of parliament and senior state officers.   The two tourism ministers stated that their goal is to double the number of tourists traveling between the two countries within the next three years.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov noted that the way to achieve this, among others, is to open additional flights to destinations within India beyond Mumbai, such as Delhi, Calcutta and Goa. The two ministers intend to work with private airlines, each one in his country, in order to promote charter flights between the two countries.   India, which currently has 200,000 hotel rooms, needs to build another 200,000, noted Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, adding that India has adopted the G-20 declaration that the tourism industry is a central economic engine for growth. According to the Indian Tourism Minister, India understands that tourism increases the rate of employment among the working classes, women and people living in the periphery.

The ministers agreed to establish a joint working forum that will be comprised of representatives from both ministries in order to swiftly implement the decisions in the agreement. India is interested to learn from Israel ways in which to develop rural tourism and Israel underlined the import of adding new flight routes between India and Israel.   Some 40,000 tourists visit each year from India, injecting some $40million annually into the Israeli economy.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)