Cable car overlooking Kiryat Shmona
Cable car overlooking Kiryat ShmonaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Planning councils in northern Israel on Sunday approved a plan to develop a major tourist center in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona. The project will include hotel rooms, places of entertainment, retail and service centers, and transportation services.

The plan was developed last year by the Kiryat Shmona local council, in an attempt to boost tourism in the town. Among the features of the plan: construction of a hotel and a recreational village, new restaurants, theaters, shopping centers, a spa, swimming pools, and an office park. The planning committee approved a request to change the zoning category for a 60-dunam (15 acre) parcel from agricultural to mixed-use tourism/business status.

In addition to the tourism center, the plan entails the planting of a new forest outside the town. That plan was already approved several months ago by planning commissions. Tenders for the project will be issued in the coming weeks, officials said.

Officials in the city said they hoped the project would bring more Israelis to the “Galilee finger” area. More tourism, they said, would enhance the community's position as a bulwark, preserving Israel's sovereignty in the region next to the Lebanese border and the Golan Heights.