GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Russian and Palestinian tourism officials and travel agencies discussed, earlier this month, measures to triple the number of tourists from Russia to Palestine.

“The conference aimed to create a network between the Russian and Palestinian tourism sectors, as well as enhancing their cooperation to increase the number of Russian tourists visiting Palestine each year, from about 380,000 to 1 million in 2019,” Jaris Qamseya, spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Monitor.

The first Russian-Palestinian tourism conference, which took place June 15 in the Russian capital Moscow, was attended by top officials, including head of the Russian-Palestinian Orthodox Association Sergei Stepashin, which gave a clear signal that religious tourism is very much on the agenda.

Qamseya noted that more than 90% of tourism to Palestine is Christian religious tourism, which targets sacred sites such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Russian nationals make up the majority of these visitors, followed by Poles, Romanians, Americans and Italians.