American-israel Chamber of Commerce Discusses Tourism to Israel

An optimistic outlook concerning Israel’s tourist industry was expounded here tonight at the annual dinner of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry held at the Biltmore Hotel. In a message to the dinner, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Frederick H. Mueller, cited the Chamber for devoting its annual gathering to the theme of travel. He expressed gratification with the fact that Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion this year visited the United States.

Two leading American expert teams, which studied Israel’s tourist industry and its prospects, estimate that by 1965, approximately 180, 000 will visit Israel annually, providing the country with a direct foreign currency income of $36, 000, 000, it was reported at the dinner. To accommodate this doubling in the number of tourists, the Israel Tourist Development Corporation expects Israel to have 6, 000, hotel rooms by 1965. It also expected that American private investors would spearhead the construction of new hotels in Israel, at an average rate of six million dollars a year.

Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corporation of America; and Lawrence Laskey of Boston, U.S. chairman of the Israel Tourist Industry Development Corporation, were presented at the dinner with Awards of Merit for their roles in expanding U.S. Israel ties in their fields. The Sheraton Corporation has arranged to manage the new Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel, and the TIDC has provided Israel’s tourist industry with long term loans for development. Charles Frost was honored for the establishment in Israel of a plant for electrical motors under the Redmond trademark.