The tourism development project in the Dead Sea area is gaining momentum – the Ministry of Tourism and the Israel Land Authority today announce that El-Ad Group has been awarded a lease on two lots for 49 years with an option to extend for another 49 years. The winner will pay for each plot NIS 2,379,660 for the land, plus development costs of NIS 6,710,340 to be transferred to the development program, which will be managed by the Dead Sea Preservation Government Company, the executive arm of the Ministry of Tourism.

The two plots (one of 24 dunams and the other of 20 dunams) are adjacent to the Isrotel Dead Sea Hotel. Each plot will include about 180 rooms, which will encourage tourism to the area. As part of the tender, 30 percent of the accommodation units can be used for special hotel accommodation. The tender was aimed only at entrepreneurs who had received a Ministry of Tourism recommendation. The tender included unique conditions, which included, among others, a fixed land price known in advance, with competition in the bid related to development costs.

Both plots are part of an approved plan that includes a commercial center, which will both serve the future area and a regional convention center.

The Ministry of Tourism is working to increase tourism in the Dead Sea area, which enjoys the highest annual average hotel occupancy rate. In 2017, the ministry inaugurated 16 new, accessible and free beaches in the Dead Sea hotel area, between Ein Bokek and Chamei Zohar. The Ministry of Tourism, via its subsidiary the Dead Sea Preservation Government Company, also built a new and modern 4-kilometer promenade and carried out infrastructure and development work in the area at a cost of NIS 500 million. Now begins the first stage of constructing additional hotel rooms in the area.

Background: A government decision led by the Ministry of Tourism allocated NIS 833 million for the rehabilitation of the Dead Sea area. The Ministry of Tourism gives grants to entrepreneurs interested in establishing or expanding hotels in the area. This, as a result of the government’s decision to allocate resources for developing the tourism and environmental infrastructure of the Dead Sea, and within the framework of the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law.

The plan enables the developer to build and develop 198 hotel rooms in each of the two plots. There is a possibility of consolidation to create a joint project (including an addition for green construction). The plots are close to the planned commercial center and the new tourism complex to be built in the future. The entrepreneurs have the option of receiving construction grants from the Ministry of Tourism under the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin: “We are continuing the tourism revolution in the Dead Sea and leveraging it as an attractive and modern tourist destination. Given the significant increase in the number of tourists arriving in Israel, I welcome the start of the process of building hundreds of new rooms at the Dead Sea, for the first time in years. Together with the promenade that has already been opened, we will see new commercial and entertainment areas opening, and an increase in the number of hotel rooms that will contribute to employment and the economy in the region.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)