The Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Hani Al-Hayek, received the Director General of JICA in the Middle East, Toyami Kei, accompanied by Mitsutaka Hoshi, the Special Representative of the JICA Foundation in Palestine, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the city of Bethlehem, in the presence of Majed Ishaq, Director General of Tourism Marketing in the Ministry.
At the beginning, Minister Hayek welcomed Toyami and his accompanying delegation, stressing the importance of partnership and cooperation between Palestine and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as this relationship was translated through the joint implementation of many projects related to tourism and the preservation of cultural heritage in Palestine, the most important of which was building coverage of The largest in the region for one of the largest preserved and continuous mosaic panels in the ancient Hisham Palace in the city of Jericho.
Al-Hayek spoke about the crisis that the tourism sector
in Palestine is going through as a result of the aggression against the Gaza Strip. This aggression targeted everything Palestinian, including people, trees and stones. He stressed that many historical and archaeological buildings in the Gaza Strip were partially or completely targeted, which is a targeting of the Palestinian national identity. These buildings constitute an important part of the history of Palestine linked to this land and that we, as Palestinians, are the owners of this land, no matter how long the occupation lasts.
Al-Hayek talked about the promotional tourism plan that Palestine will adopt immediately after the end of the aggression to ensure the return of tourism activity to Palestine to its previous state, as it will include focusing on new tourist markets that had not previously visited Palestine, in addition to targeting new tourist categories and groups.
In turn, Toyami spoke about the importance of the partnership between JICA and Palestine, especially with the Ministry of Tourism
and Antiquities, stressing the need to develop joint work horizons to include new areas that contribute to the development of programs and marketing plans for Palestine and contribute to the development of historical sites and transforming them into tourist sites that can be visited by tourist groups coming to visit Palestine.
The two parties discussed ways to develop cooperation in the field of global tourism promotion and exchange experiences and information in this field, in addition to ways to develop work in the field of attracting internal tourism from our Palestinian people, in addition to discussing new projects in the field of preserving antiquities in Palestine and transforming archaeological sites into visitable tourist sites
Source: Maan News Agency