In the wake of COVID-19, the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) and the Palestinian Tourism Recovery Taskforce (PTRT) have carried out several interventions conducive to reopening the Palestinian tourism sector. They have increased the readiness of Palestinian tourism facilities as well as the capacities of workers within the tourism industry by ensuring the implementation of the “COVID-19 Tourism Operation Manual for Palestine”, a prevention guidebook that outlines hygiene practices and protocols in line with international standards.

The most recent development of this ongoing process has been the large distribution of hygiene signage to be displayed at all tourism sites and entities across Palestine. The signs were developed with financial and technical support from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and includes 50 different informative signs in 12 different languages.  

The signs aim to direct tourism service providers, visitors, and tourists to follow the guidelines and protocols for protection, hygiene, sterilization, and social distancing. The National Team of Auditors, who have been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the manual’s hygiene protocols, have begun distributing the signs across all tourism sites and entities as well as Palestinian Governate buildings.

At the same time, the Ministry and the National Team of Auditors have started an intensive awareness campaign targeting Palestinian official bodies. They have begun approaching Governors, the Ministry of Health, Municipalities, the Police Force, and representatives from the private sector to present the details of the Palestinian tourism sector’s national plan in terms of health, safety, and hygiene protocols.

In order for the Palestinian tourism sector to recover, the spread of awareness as well as the cooperation of the private sector, public sector, and official bodies are essential. It’s through these milestones that Palestine comes closer to creating a safe environment ready to reopen for tourism.   

The hygiene signage from Jahzeen.ps can be viewed or downloaded here.

Learn more about the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities most recent developments and initiatives here.

About Jahzeen.ps (Jahzeen): Jahzeen.ps is Palestine’s tourism-readiness and resilience e-learning platform developed to fuse COVID prevention standards and protocols into everyday tourism business in Palestine. Its mission is to help enhance tourism sector employee’s skill sets by providing Jahzeen.ps users with learning tools and certification regarding the new standards and protocols necessary to implement a resilient tourism sector recovery. The Jahzeen e-Learning curriculum provides its users with access to information that includes a general introduction to COVID-19 as well as the new standards and protocols necessary to implement a successful recovery.