France is backing a program to increase tourist cooperation among the countries of the Holy Land in an effort to boost Middle East peace, the French tourism minister said Wednesday.
French Secretary of State for Tourism Michelle Demessine said that Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the self-rule Palestinian Authority had all agreed to jointly promote cross-border tours in the region.
Traveling between Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt can be difficult because of visa restrictions, security checks, administrative snags and cultural stigmatism.
"Tourism can contribute to peace. The idea is of roads of tourism for peace," Demessine told a press conference along with the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian tourism ministers.
She said the ministers would present the idea of marketing jointly Holy Land packages on Thursday during a tourism trade fair in Deauville, on the Normandy coast of France.
Demessine said the Middle East states involved were considering tours that would trace the Jews' exodus from Egypt to Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the journey of Jesus Christ from Israel and the Palestinian territories to Egypt, while other packages would follow battles of the Crusades.
Some 18 million tourists visited the Middle East in 1999, according to the World Tourism Organization, a 16 percent increase from the year before.
WTO secretary general Francesco Frangialli said the Middle East peace process was responsible for the increase, adding that joint-cooperation would have been impossible several years ago.
Egypt and Jordan have signed peace accords with Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in on-off negotiations to try to reach a deal that would result in a Palestinian state, but remain far apart on what that state would include -- TEL AVIV (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
