Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today visited the Ramon Crater and toured the construction site of the B'reishit Hotel.  Mitzpe Ramon Local Council Chairwoman Flora Shoshan, Isrotel Director-General Rafi Sadeh and Prime Minister's Office Director-General Ra'anan Dinur accompanied the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Olmert related to the Negev's development, especially tourism, and said: "In order to develop Israeli tourism and allow it to reach its potential, we need a government with vision, investors with courage, the ability to see things the way they should be and not as they are, and local leadership that does not allow government bureaucrats to sit quietly.  It is important that we change priorities and understand that, although our country is very small, it has large and beautiful tracts of land that we have yet to develop."