This Nation Will Soon Have a Special E-Visa Programme Just For Indians

In an interview with The Economic Times, Amruta Bangera, director of marketing at the Israel Ministry of Tourism, India, claimed that Indians will be the first in the world to be eligible for an e-visa programme by Israel. The plans for the programme suggest that it might be implemented by the end of this year.

Israel Calling Indians

According to Bangera, Israel is currently working at full speed to attract tourists to the country and aims to see a footfall of at least 70,000 Indian visitors by 2025 and 1 lakh by 2026. The new e-visa programme will aim to attract more Indians to the country, and for the same, the Israeli government is targeting Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Hyderabad. Digital campaigns, roadshows, and agent partnerships are planned to get the word out about the visa programme. There also are discussion sessions with Air India and IndiGo to increase the flight connectivity between the two nations.

“To attract more tourists and make it easier for them, we are planning to come up with an e-visa programme. It is still in a nascent stage, but by the end of the year, we should have a pilot running for e-visas for Indians. India is the first country we are doing e-visas for, as Israel believes strongly in the potential of the Indian market. We see huge potential. Because we have so many outbound tourists from India, we want to target them. We are trying to do everything possible to ensure people that it is safe to travel to Israel. Even the airlines have begun operations. Air India started three flights, and now they have added a fourth flight. They are planning to do a daily flight to Israel and I am told they are also contemplating whether to operate a few from Mumbai or just continue from Delhi. I have been informed that they would come up with details by the end of the third quarter. We are also planning a digital campaign for India besides participating in seminars and roadshows and signing agreements with travel agents. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Hyderabad are our biggest markets in India, but we are trying to promote Israel in tier two, tier three markets as well. 50% of the tourists who visited Israel this year were from South India. Pilgrimage constitutes about 48% of the overall visitor mix from India to Israel, while leisure, MICE, and others would be around 30%, 12%, and 10% respectively,” Bangera stated.

Israel’s Shaky Tourism

Israel is currently struggling to invite in more tourists from around the world because of their occupation of Palestine. The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), in July, ordered Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible” and make full reparations for its “internationally wrongful acts”. According to ICJ, Israel’s settlement policies are “unlawful”. Numerous countries and organisations have also called for a ceasefire, which has not been implemented yet, causing citizens of these countries to denounce Israel, pulling away their money from its tourism sector as they did that. South Africa filed a case against Israel before The Hague in December 2023 for “its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza” and many countries have even called back their ambassadors from Israel, severing the political and cultural ties with the country.