Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov spoke on Wednesday with Russia’s Tourism, Sport and Youth Policy Minister Vitaly Mutko whom he met three weeks ago during his visit to Russia. Misezhnikov discussed with his counterpart how to end Russia’s refusal to allow Israeli planes to fly to the Russian cities of Rostov, Sochi and Krasnodar. Misezhnikov met the previous day with Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to discuss ways of solving what the Tourism Ministry calls a “severe aviation crisis between Israel and Russia.” According to the Ministry, this position could lead to the cancellation of flights on additional routes between Israel and Russia, cause damage to incoming tourism and loss of revenue which stands at hundreds of millions of shekel annually.
In recent years, Russia has become the second largest source country for incoming tourism to Israel. The activities of the Tourism Ministry to increase tourism traffic from Russia, including the cancellation of the visa requirement and the allocation of a 12 million shekel marketing budget in 2008, brought 360,000 tourists from Russia to Israel (and an injection of over $280 million into the state coffers). Despite the global economic crisis, tourism to Israel from Russia has not been affected. As a result, the Ministry stated that it will continue its activities, including the spending of about 50 million NIS on a marketing campaign for 2009-2010.