The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities headed by her excellency the minister D Khouloud D'aibes, will participate at the Arabian Travel Market this year accompanied by a delegation of representatives of the ministry, Palestinian tour operators, hotels and craftsmen.
This initiative comes along with the recent positive developments at the Palestinian tourist industry sector, basically in the field of enhancing the tourist infrastructure, developing the Palestinian tourist product and establishing new tourist institutions, which in return, have led to a remarkable increase in tourist arrivals that reached around 500,000 tourists in the year 2007.
During the last months, several political, academic and artistic personalities visited Palestine, who assured that they had had a wonderful and unique experience, which the ministry considered was conclusive evidence that Palestine was a safe destination, going against the warnings from other countries about travel to Palestine.
In cooperation with local and international institutions, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is seeking to improve tourist services, and to develop new tourist sites for a better and longer tourist stay in cities such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and Hebron. Meanwhile, within the political frames and in cooperation with the international organisations, the Ministry is working to exert pressure on Israel to open all the Palestinian cities for tourism, especially the northern cities such as Nablus and Jenin.
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is attaching great importance to the Investment Conference to be held in Bethlehem this month, since the tourist sector is expected to be highly considered in this conference, which is attracting the attention of many foreign and Arab countries, a ministry spokesman said. Visit the Palestinian stand at ATM and taste typical Palestinian food, view their handcrafts, and meet with public and private tourist sector representatives.