JERUSALEM, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov will begin a visit to Russia, Israel's second-largest tourism partner, on Wednesday.
Ahead of Misezhnikov's first foreign trip as tourism minister, the Israeli Tourism Ministry published a report saying that the number of foreign tourists to Israel dropped by 22% in the first quarter of 2009. However, the number of Russian visitors went down by a mere 7% in the same period.
"The figures show that the dynamics of the demand for travel services in Russia has been less affected by the economic crisis than in the rest of Europe," said Misezhnikov.
In 2008, when Russia and Israel scrapped visas, 360,000 Russians visited Israel out of a total of 3 million foreign tourists to the country.
Misezhnikov said he would discuss increasing the number of flights from Russian regions to Israel with his Russian counterpart Igor Levitin and also meet with the authorities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as leading travel agents, journalists and local religious leaders.
"I am coming to find out directly how they [the Russians] would like to see a trip to Israel and to make an attempt to outline these trips, these routes," the Israeli tourism minister said.
At a meeting with Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Misezhnikov, a former Muscovite, is planning to discuss the resurrection of a project to build a resort on the shores of the Dead Sea.
Last November, Moscow city government was announced the winner of a tender to build a $100 million project to build a hotel with 240 rooms, two swimming pools, a spa center, a health facility, a conference hall, two restaurants and a helicopter landing pad.
However, the launch of the project has been delayed and Misezhnikov expressed his concern that Moscow authorities had been paying large amounts of compensation to Israel's Land Administration.
