The government has approved a NIS 145 million plan for tourism development of Tiberias.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Wednesday night with a ministerial team tasked with forming the plan, which is to be presented to the Cabinet for final approval next week.The plan, which includes investment in the development of tourist sites, will feature construction of a promenade along Lake Kinneret – the Sea of Galilee.
Developers will also link Tiberias with the Christian tourist site at Capernaum, as well as other heritage sites in and around the city.Grants of up to 28 percent of the investment will be provided to private entrepreneurs to encourage construction of new hotels, officials said.
The city, home to some 45,000 residents, is located on the western bank of Lake Kinneret and features a shore that stretches a bit more than seven and a half kilometers long.Tiberias is also one of the four holy cities of Judaism, and an ancient seat of Torah scholarship. It is the place in which the first Sanhedrin – the Great Rabbinical Court – was convened, and is also the place where the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled and edited.