The young business man, Maher Canawati, working in Palestinian tourism sector, said that Palestine and its people are greatly respected by the near east countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia. However, real movement is needed to attract pilgrimage from these countries who deeply believe in the Palestinian cause.
Canawati told PNN that during the past 20 days, he was on tour for promoting  Palestinian tourism in several countries in East Asia, and mostly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Thailand and Singapore. He focused on promoting religious and historical sites in Palestine, and discussed the potentiality of coordinating direct trips for pilgrims through Jordan, where he met with Muslim and Christian clerics to discuss the political, economic, and moral necessity of pilgrimage to Palestine.
Canawati added that he was hosted on many radio and TV talk shows in Malaysia and  Indonesia, and that Palestinian situation was featured in newspapers, talking about the potentiality of coordinating pilgrimage trips to the Holy Land.
He said that his interviews with the media and officials mainly focused on two major issues: the current tourism situation and the potentiality of promoting a Palestinian tourism program in these countries, where he demonstrated the Israeli aggression on this land that recently witnessed the Gaza genocide, and the Israeli attacks on Palestinian lands and continuous building of settlements and military and settlers persecution of Palestinians.
The second issue was researching practical techniques to have Palestine become a pilgrim destination through direct trips, which was discussed with the Indonesian ambassador in Jordan, and with the Palestinian ambassador in Indonesia, Fariz Mehdawi.
Canawati also discussed the issues and the future of Palestinian tourism and pilgrimage with the Ministry of tourism in Jordan, and the head of the Jordan Aviation Airline, deputy Mohammad Al-Khashman,  as a continuation of previous meetings where trips were supposed to be launched in the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, but were delayed as a result of Israeli aggression on Gaza. Therefore, a future pure Palestinian-Jordanian tourism program was discussed.
The meetings fruited with sending tour guides from Palestine to learn the language, so as to be able to give explanation about Palestinian and Jordanian sites.  
Canawati hoped that these efforts to receive follow-up and attention from Palestinian officials, especially from the Palestinian Ministry of tourism, pointing out that there are great potentials of attracting tourists to Palestine, but that it required communicating with other countries and convincing them of the importance of tourism and pilgrimage in Palestine.
Finally, Canawati said that supporting the tourism industry in Palestine is an economic and patriotic responsibility for workers in tourism public and private sectors, emphasizing that mutual cooperation is needed to recognize Palestine on the international tourism map

Source: PNN