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Israel’s tightened security measures not to affect RF tourist flow

Lomidze stressed that “tightened security measures in the Middle East and Israel are usual, and first of all it is caused by celebration of Jewish New Year /Rosh Hashanah/”

MOSCOW, October 5 (Itar-Tass) — Israel’s tightened security measures following the threat of new acts of terror will not affect the flow of Russian tourists to that country, Executive Director of Russia’s Association of Tourism Operators Maya Lomidze said on Wednesday.

“Realistically, only military actions may affect tourist flows, and no other measures, including tightened security,” she said.

Lomidze stressed that “tightened security measures in the Middle East and Israel are usual, and first of all it is caused by celebration of Jewish New Year /Rosh Hashanah/.”

“Now it is peak tourist season in Israel, but usually there are not many Russian tourists there at this time, mostly there are tourists from America,” she continued and added that there may be about several thousand Russian tourists at Israel’s resorts at the moment.

Rostourism reports that 111,000 tourists from Russia visited Israel over first six months of the current year. During a similar period of the past year, they made only 84,000.

In 2010, over 184,000 tourists from Russia visited Israel, in 2009 – 135,000.