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Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, said that the Ministry of Tourism will begin promoting the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai to the orthodox communities, in order to realize the potential of the site, where a million tourists visit each year.

The Minister of Tourism will coordinate the preparations for the annual upcoming Lag Ba’Omer festival that takes place on the 12th May.  The minister will be joined by Orthodox members of the Knesset, the Commander of the Traffic Police, representatives of the Interior Ministry and the Bureau for the Protection of Holy sites.

Misezhnikov promised to act to increase the number of tourists visiting the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai during the next year, indicating that there was significant potential yet to be realized. According to the minister there are about 1 million visitors a year to the site, of which approximately 400,000 visitors for the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations.

The Ministry of Tourism reported that in the last year they invested about 7 million shekels in development work at the grave, of that 4.5 million shekels had been spent on the infrastructure, koshering the roads and car parks, erecting lighting, improving pathways and koshering the transportation center for transporting worshippers from the car parks. An additional 2 million shekels has been spent on the operations center and half a million shekels to improve the police facilities.

Following severe traffic congestion last year, the regional head of the traffic police, Chief Superintendent Reuven Edri said that this year the police will regulate traffic on the main roads approaching the area and not only at the site itself.

Minister Misezhnikov instructed that all work relating to visitor safety be completed within the next few days.