Health Ministry Deputy Director General Professor Itamar Grotto visited Eilat over the weekend to look into how the city, a major destination for both incoming and domestic tourism, was faring and hear suggested from local tourism officials, Eilat city officials, and Tourism Ministry experts about possible suggestions for the city going ahead.
Proposals included testing tourists for coronavirus prior to their arrival; developing a smartphone app that would alert the city of unlawful gatherings and help contain the possibility of infection; and distributing hygiene kits to every tourist who arrives.
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Another intriguing proposal put before Grotto entails turning Eilat into an "international tourism bubble." This would allow the city to open to international flights, unlike the rest of the country.
Deputy Director General of the Tourism Ministry Amir Halevy presented the idea to Grotto. The idea is to allow the mayor of Eilat to choose which countries' flights would be allowed to land in the city. At this stage, it seems as if arriving foreign tourists would have to provide proof of negative corona tests.
The Eilat Municipality called the proposal "interesting" and are calling on the authorities to set up a framework that would allow it to be implemented.
Eilat has one of the lowest tallies of coronavirus in Israel, although that could be attributed in part to the relatively low number of tests conducted in the city. Since the city's hotels reopened for business after the general closure, a few new cases were identified, but the city is almost corona-free, and wants to stay that way. This past weekend, 40,000 Israeli tourists arrived in the city, and according to estimates in the tourism sector, 250,000 Israelis have visited the city since the end of the closure.
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