According to the Pappaspost, an Israeli business group intends to develop a tourism investment worth 500 million euros on the island of Crete – on 617 acres of land in the north of the island which currently operates as the island’s first and only golf course.

But Zacharias Doxastakis, the mayor of Hersonissos, a popular holiday destination in the north of Crete, says the Israelis will only go through with the investment if the Greek state speeds up its licensing procedures.

According to the English online edition of Kathimerini, the Israeli group’s investment program provides for the creation and operation of a five-star hotel unit comprising luxury tourism accommodation, a conference center, a spa, sports facilities, a shopping mall, a Cretan theme park and a casino.

The investors are asking Greece’s finance ministry to activate a law dating from 1994 which provides for the operation of a casino on Crete. Meanwhile, Cretan entrepreneurs as well as casino market sources say it would be best to have two casinos, one in the eastern part of Crete and another in the west.

Last week, local media reported on the record number of Israelis – as many as 400,000 – who vacationed in Greece last year. This is more than double the 150,000 Israeli tourists in 2010.

Greece’s Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni, who visited Tel Aviv in July 2012, said one of the main reasons Greece is attracting an increasing number of Israeli tourists is because more and more tourism agencies are offering packages that feature visits to Greek Jewish heritage sites.

And the island of Crete – the country’s biggest island – is a top destination for Israelis. Industry experts point to a surge in the numbers – from a mere 12,000 Israeli tourists in 2006 to more than 100,000 last year.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Kefalogianni characterized the Israeli tourist as “quite sophisticated, they know what they are looking for”. She said Israelis, like Greeks, “enjoy life, and they find vacations abroad mean they want to explore the senses: experiencing taste, cuisine, music”.

“The poor Greek economic situation has had a positive impact on tourism to Greece, because the country has become a good value for the money,” added Kefalogianni (photo), who dismissed any notion the rise of the extreme right and anti-Semitic Golden Dawn party could make Israeli visitors feel unsafe or uncomfortable in her country.

“I am very positive that Athens, and Greece as a whole, is a very safe destination,” she said. “We have never had any incident, even with [Golden Dawn] demonstrations that were much publicized, of any visitors being affected.”

“For Greece, Israel constitutes a significant market that we want to develop further, as 400,000 of its citizens come to Greece and we want this number to grow in the coming years,” Kefalogianni told reporters last week.