|
Trending Topics
|
New Air Route from China Will Boost Tourism to Israel
(Jerusalem Post) Tamara Zieve - China's Hainan Airlines has submitted a request to Israel's Civil Aviation Authority to operate a route between Guangzhou in southern China and Ben-Gurion Airport, the Transportation Ministry announced Tuesday. Hainan Airlines, China's largest privately owned air carrier, already operates 4-5 direct weekly flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv, in addition to the El Al flights between those destinations. Starting in September, Hainan Airlines will also operate three weekly flights between Shanghai and Tel Aviv. Transportation Minister Israel Katz said increasing the locations connected by direct flights is expected to help realize the enormous potential of inbound tourism from China. "We are talking about hundreds of thousands of Chinese who admire the history of the Jewish people," said Katz. In the first half of 2017, the number of tourists from China increased by 75% over the same period in 2016, with 61,000 visits.