At least a thousand jobs will be opened for Philippine workers in Israel’s tourism industry by the end of the year, an Israeli diplomatic envoy said according to Philippine News Agency.

In a recent interview, Israel’s Ambassador to the Philippines, Rafael Harpaz, said that the Philippines was the first country that Israel had signed an agreement with to fill hotel and restaurant vacancies in its country.

“We decided to open Israel to a limited amount of overseas workers all over the world. We start with 2,000, and 1,000 of them will be Filipinos,” he said on the sidelines of the Water Technology Forum in Makati City, Manila.

With the increasing tourist arrivals to Israel every year, Harpaz noted they saw a lack of local workers keen to take part in their tourism industry. This prompted the government to seek overseas workers, with Filipino nationals as priority.

“Why Filipinos? Because you have the best service in hotels and restaurants,” the ambassador added.