"Not predicting trouble, but want to be ready": Israel's Tourism Ministry Director on tourists' evacuation plan amidst conflict

Tel Aviv [Israel], January 27 (ANI): Director General of the Tourism Ministry, Michael Itzhakov, announced on Monday that amid the "possibility of an Iranian attack", Israel's plan to evacuate approximately 42,000 tourists is ready, the Jerusalem Post reported.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Itzhakov said that as a lesson to be learnt from the previous scenarios, alluding to the 12-day conflict with Iran in June of 2025, Israel has been preparing for an evacuation scenario for about a month now. In this regard, he met with Tourism Minister Haim Katz.
The Director General said that the Tourism Ministry has developed internal procedures designed to provide certainty and reassurance to tourists in the event of an airspace closure.
He said, "This is general preparedness. We are not predicting trouble, but we want to be ready. The Tourism Ministry has created an internal procedure, and we want to provide certainty for tourists."
According to Itzhakov, the Population and Immigration Authority estimated that approximately 42,000 tourists are in Israel, but the data is incomplete for dual-citizen Israelis, as they may be tourists but are not counted in the data set upon entering the country.
Itzhakov's remarks come amid rising tensions with Iran and the possibility of a security escalation as "Trump weighs US strikes on the regime", the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Director General of the Tourism Ministry emphasised that the preparations on both the communication and logistical levels are complete to maintain continuous contact with tourists in the event of airspace closure. This also involves preparing messages in several languages and establishing a human operations centre that will be in direct contact with those arriving in the country for tourism.
He described that most tourists, upon entering the country, are required to fill out a form, so the country thus has a record of tourists' phone numbers.
"The State of Israel has the phone number of those who enter the country; it's not overly complicated. There are privacy and legal considerations, but most tourists are required to fill out a form upon entry," he explained.
The purpose of maintaining a record of mobile numbers is to enable the ministry to map tourists' locations, particularly in hotels, for rapid response if needed.
"We are prepared for scenarios we encountered in June, and there will not be a situation in which tourists are left wandering without direction," said Itzhakov.
Itzhakov said that the preparations are part of a contingency plan, even if they are not needed in the future.
"The Tourism Ministry has already experienced war, and we want to be prepared, to have a contingency plan, even if we never end up using it," he said (ANI)