Israel airline Arkia keen to start South india hub, says chennai is key market

Director of Israel Tourism Ministry (India and the Philippines) Hassan Madah also said Tel Aviv-based airline Arkia has expressed interest to begin operations from South India.

“Tourism is on the rise in Israel and in-bound arrivals from India have increased in the last few years,” he said here.

“There has been a growth of 58 per cent with 48,800 Indian arrivals to Israel from January to September 2018 against 30,800 during the corresponding period of 2016,” Madah, who was here as part of a roadshow, said.

With the rise in Indian nationals visiting his country, he said, “Tel Aviv-based airline Arkia has expressed interest to begin operations from South India.” It was in addition to the recent initiative by Air India and Israel airline El Al to further boost flight connectivity between the two countries, he said.

Noting that Israel Tourism Ministry has launched several initiatives to ease the visa procedure for Indians, he said, ‘It includes faster visa processing and relaxation of documentation for persons who have travelled to any of the Schengen countries, US, Canada, Australia or Israel.”

On tourists from Chennai, he said the city was an important market with an increased demand for leisure travel and pilgrimage tourism to Israel, he said.