A “substantial growth” of tourism in Israel, resulting in earnings of $16,000,000 in foreign exchange and an increase in the number of tourists in 1959 to 94,000, as against 75,000 in 1958, was announced here today in a report issued by the New York office of the Tourist Industry Development Corporation of Israel. The report shows that, through loans provided by the corporation, 336 new hotel rooms have been constructed in Israel, while 517 existing rooms have been improved.
During the first seven months of this year, the report shows, there has been a 36 percent increase in tourism, over 1959, with 72,000 visitors registered in Israel for the period.
An announcement by Lawrence C. Laskey, chairman of the American section of the firm’s board of directors, stated that the corporation’s sales of seven percent debentures in this country has reached a total of $2,060,000. According to Mr. Laskey. the Israel Government has granted permission for ultimate repayment of the debentures in United States dollars.
A five-year plan for the Israel tourist industry, made by a group of American experts, calls for an investment of 60,000,000 Israeli pounds ($34,000,000), the doubling of the existing rooms available to tourists, and a goal of 250,000 tourists by 1965. The corporation’s figures show that income to be earned from such development would exceed $40,000,000 annually.
The American section of the corporation’s board of directors, in addition to Mr. Laskey, include Jacob Arvey of Chicago, Louis H. Mayer of Los Angeles, Rudolf G. Sonneborn of New York, Dewey D. Stone of Boston, and Benjamin H. Swig of San Francisco.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
