With tourism to Jerusalem shut down, officials are hoping to still keep the city in the hearts and minds of potential travelers by offering virtual visits.
Museum staff will run trips around empty museums, accompanied by cameras instead of a tour group. Guides will do the same on the city’s streets. Jerusalem’s tourist authority hopes that thousands of would-be tourists who can’t fly to Israel because of the coronavirus will sign up for the tours, along with thousands of others.
The Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on March 15, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Ilanit Melchior, Director of Tourism for the Jerusalem Development Authority, told The Times of Israel that the online platform will be live in 10 days, and will prove an important asset when the coronavirus crisis is over and Jerusalem is rebuilding its tourism sector.
“Recovery will come, it’s just a question of time. And it’s about keeping Jerusalem in people’s minds and hearts until that time,” she says.
— Nathan Jeffay
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