- Title: JERUSALEM: ISRAEL INVITES LEBANESE TO TAKE CUT-PRICE HOLIDAYS IN JERUSALEM.
- Date: 2nd August 1982
- Summary: GV INTERIOR Israel Minister of Tourism Avraham Sharir speaking to travel agents. (3 SHOTS) SV Sharir meeting head of Lebanese travel agents (in suit) Zachi Sa'es. SV Travel agents toast Zachi Sa'es. SV Zachi Sa'es cuts cake with Lebanese flag on top while Israelis cheer. SCU EXTERIOR Sharir speaking. TRANSCRIPT: REPORTER: (SEQ 5) "What effect do you think this will have, not so much on the people of Lebanon, but on tourism from other parts of the world, specifically from the United States? Don't you think this will have a possible effect on traffic from the US?" SHARIR: "Surely, unfortunately we are being subjugated to vicious attack from the world's media, distorted facts, not a true fact, not a true picture, not a thing that's going on here. Now when the people are going to see that the Lebanese are visiting Israel as tourist they will understand there is a story behind the story. They will start asking themselves what is going on here? Is the war with Lebanon or the war with the PLO? And then all the people that didn't come now to Israel, staying away because of the war situation, they start coming here." GD/JRS
- Embargoed: 17th August 1982 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Business,Politics,Travel / Tourism
- Reuters ID: LVA9V62BZK2YSMACHRMRBFV0ND41
- Story Text: Israel has invited the Lebanese people to forget the war and come to Israel for a holiday. A delegation of Lebanese travel agents are being offered tours of Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea at less than seven dollars a day. Twenty one agents were in Jerusalem on July 30 as guests of the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Mr. Avraham Sharir. They were from Sidon one of the worst hit cities in Lebanon. And they predict large numbers of Lebanese will want to travel south on holiday. They did not say which Lebanese would want to come, but many Lebanese Christians have supported the Israel advance - at least in public. Mr. Sharir for his part said the presence of Lebanese tourists would prove that Israel was not at war with Lebanon, only with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). But Israel badly needs tourist revenue. Before the war, tourism brought more than a billion dollars a year to Israel. Since the war began, the number of guests in Israeli hotels has fallen by 18 per cent.
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