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Specialist travel company Eco Tours planned to take a group of Israeli travelers to Venezuela on 2nd November, but encountered obstacles placed in their path by the Venezuelan government.  Ronen Raz CEO: “We are suspending trips for Israeli travelers to Venezuela until a settlement has been reached between the two countries.”

Holiday and travel company, Eco Tours, who specialize in geographical tours, claim that the Venezuelan government refused to grant entry visas to a group of 13 Israeli hikers, who planned an organized trip to the country.

Ronen Raz, the company’s CEO, who took a group of Israelis to Venezuela some two years ago, was at that time issued with entry visas by Venezuelan representatives in Ramallah, said that after agreeing all parts of the trip, contacted government representatives in Caracas in order to request visas for the travelers.

 “As you are aware, the Venezuelan embassy in Israel was closed about a year ago as a result of the political crisis between the two countries and therefore we cannot obtain visas in Israel,” explained Raz. “As a result we turned to all possible sources, including the Venezuelan embassies in Kenya, Madrid, Paris, Greece, Germany, Colombia and even to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in order to obtain visas.”

According to Raz, after an altercation with the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, it was agreed that visas would be issued by the Venezuelan embassy in Amman, but this would require a physical presence as well as the completion of a variety of forms including a letter from the work place in English confirming that the employee was currently employed in that place, original bank statements for the last three months, a health declaration in English. “In fact the Venezuelan government placed so many obstacles in the way of the Israeli travelers, in order to prevent them traveling to the country,” said Raz.

Raz also added that Eco Tours agreed to send a representative to Jordan to collect the visas, with all of the paperwork requested by the Venezuelan government, but they refused this, insisting that all members of the group wishing to travel would need to go personally to Jordan.  Raz: “The members of the group refused to travel all the way to Jordan just to obtain visas and have therefore given up because of the demands of the Venezuelans. Therefore, the company has had no choice but to cancel the trip and return the money to the travelers while at the same time absorbing a large financial loss.”

Raz revealed that the volume of annual tourism from Israel to Venezuela is low and is exceeded by the flow of business traffic.  “We very much hope that this situation will pass soon,” he added. “This is the first time in my life that I have had to cancel a group trip.