The Foreign Ministry gave the green light to Israeli travel agents today to begin organizing group charter and individual tourist flights to Egypt and to cooperate with their Egyptian counterparts in arranging tourism between the two countries. The Ministry had been considering a proposal by Egyptian Foreign Minister Boutros Ghali to limit the tourist business for the time being to one or two major travel organizations. But the Israel Association of Travel Agents objected strenuously and that idea was dropped.
The first Israeli tourist to Egypt, 19-year-old Ofra Gamel, returned to Tel Aviv today aboard the yacht Gabriella, after a three-day visit. Although she did not have an Egyptian visa and possessed only an Israeli passport, the Egyptian police and port authorities at Port Said went out of their way to be helpful, she said. Ms. Ofra’s Egyptian visa, obtained when she landed at Port Said, was the first ever stamped into an Israeli passport. Other Israeli tourists who arrived with her held foreign passports. Heretofore, Israeli diplomats and journalists visiting Egypt had their visas stamped on separate pieces of paper.
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