SA, Palestine seal tourism deal

South Africa and Palestine have signed a landmark tourism cooperation agreement.

Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom and his Palestinian counterpart, Her Excellency Rula Ma'ayah Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of the State of Palestine, signed the agreement recently.

“We encourage South Africans to visit Palestine. We know that there are obstacles, but we are confident that just like us, the people of Palestine will find peace soon.

“We stand in solidarity with the world in finding lasting solutions on the Palestinian question,” said Minister Hanekom.

Minister Ma'ayah expressed her gratitude on behalf of the people of Palestine for the continued support from South Africa including multilateral efforts in finding lasting peace.

“Palestine is a holy place with a number of different religious sites. We have 2.7 million tourists visiting Palestine each year, despite the fact that we do not have a single airport.This agreement is therefore a very important milestone towards increasing South African visits to Palestine,” she said.

The areas of cooperation as stipulated in the agreement are:

• The exchange of tourism information.

• Private sector cooperation, including mutual participation in tourism festivals, fairs, seminars, conferences and other tourism events held in the two countries. • Tourism investments, including public sector investments into the development and implementation of tourism.

• Capacity building.