Israel Authorities Forecast The Increase Of Russian Tourist Flow To The Country

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   Tourism authorities of Israel presented details of the on-line visa processing project. Yehezkel Pollyack, the Counselor of Economic, Commercial and Tourism Affairs of Israel Embassy in Russia, said to a BANKO correspondent that a website where applicants will be able to fill in an application form will be launched in April. In case of positive result they will be provided with a list of documents necessary for visa issuing. Thus, Israel authorities plan to reduce a period of visa issuing to 3-5 days, while at the moment it takes around two weeks.
    According to Alexander Baras, the Head of E-tiquette Company, adoption of new rules for visa application will allow to reduce the workload of consulate agents. Ludmila Zolotukhina, Director of Big Travel, explained: ‘tourist flow to Israel has increased that affected the workload of consulate’. Moreover, Eli Cohen, General Director of the Ministry of Tourism of Israel, confirmed the information regarding the growth of tourist flow, pointing out the plans for 2006 - to increase a number of tourists to120, 000 from 69, 000 in 2005.
    Meanwhile, other Russian tour operators do not express enthusiasm towards Israel authorities’ decision to simplify the visa regime. Thus, Oleg Dragunskyi, the Head of Sotsium – tour explained the skeptical attitude by the policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel paying much attention to security issues.