The Tourism Ministry is preparing for a significant increase in tourism from the Ukraine, as the bilateral agreement to cancel the visa requirement for tourists goes into effect between Israel and the Ukraine on Wednesday, 9 February 2011. According to Tourism Ministry targets, 2011 will see a 40% increase in tourism from the Ukraine with an estimated 140,000 tourists in 2011, who will inject more than $100 million a year into the Israeli economy.

The Tourism Ministry, headed by Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, will mark the agreement with a festive event that will take place in the Israel Government Tourist Office in Kiev on Wednesday, 9 February 2011 with the participation of representatives from the Ukrainian government and tourism industry. The event will be followed by a tourism fair, seminar and professional meetings with tourism industry representatives.

Prior to his departure for the Ukraine, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov will hold a festive press conference at Ben Gurion airport (9.2.11 at 09:00) with the participation of representatives from the Israel tourism industry, during which information related to tourism between the countries, marketing goals and programs, planned activities in the field etc will be discussed. Participating in the press conference will be President of the Hotels Association Ami Federman, Chairman of the Incoming Tour Operators Association Shmuel Merom, CEO of El Al Eliezer Shkedi  and Chairman of the Israel-Ukraine Friendship Committee MK Alex Miller. The press conference will take place in the El Al Lounge and, immediately afterwards, the Israeli delegation will leave for the Ukraine. The press conference will be in Hebrew, with comments in Russian and English.

The Tourism Ministry has worked for two years to cancel the visa requirement for tourists, following the ministry’s successful campaign to cancel the visa requirement from Russia – a process that led to an increase of hundreds of percent in tourism from Russia to Israel and has placed Russia as the second largest source country for incoming tourism after the USA (550,000 tourists in 2010). Tourism from Russia alone has injected about $400 million into the Israeli economy.

RSVP (mandatory) by return email to tourism.gov.il@gmail.com.

Transport available from Tel Aviv, departing Beit Sokolov at 08:00 (Jerusalem on request)