Israel to woo UAE visitors as it prepares to relaunch tourism

An Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 'Dreamliner' aircraft displays Israeli and Emirati flags after landing upon arrival from the UAE at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport 

JERUSALEM (AFP): Israel announced plans on Tuesday to attract visitors from the United Arab Emirates, after last year's historic normalisation deal and as the Jewish state prepares to re-open to groups of vaccinated tourists on 23 May.

Israel's borders have largely been closed since March 2020, when it imposed its first of three pandemic lockdowns.

But a successful vaccination campaign has enabled a broad economic re-opening, months after the UAE became only the third Arab state to establish full ties with Israel in a US-brokered deal.

“Dubai has great tourism potential for Israel,” Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen told reporters, as she unveiled a marketing push including a billboard campaign in Dubai.

Israeli officials have predicted interest among Emirati tourists, notably in seeing the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, which is in annexed east Jerusalem.

Farkash-Hacohen said that while Israel would initially only let tour groups into the country, vaccinated individual travellers would be granted entry from July.

Beyond tourism, economic cooperation has played a central role in the so-called Abraham Accords – most recently with Monday's announcement that Israeli gas firm Delek had agreed in principle to sell its stake in a vast offshore project to the UAE's Mubadala Petroleum for a cool $ 1.1 billion.

As well as the new UAE tourism pitch, Farkash-Hacohen said Israel was expecting a resurgence of visitors from traditional destinations including Britain and the United States.

More than half of Israel's 9.3 million residents have received the two recommended shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a campaign that has sent infection rates plunging and allowed the resumption of large public events.

Farkash-Hacohen said her office will market the upcoming Pride Parade in Tel Aviv, an international music festival and a cycling tour to help attract visitors.

The tourism ministry will also offer perks to airlines flying to the Red Sea resort city of Eilat.