Eilat, Israel. Palestinian terrorism has not hindered tourism. Photo: Wikipedia.

Florida-based Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel recently received a US patent for a fully submerged luxury-stay resort and is eyeing Israel’s Red Sea coast as one of its prime locations for development.

According to a press release by Planet Ocean last week, the company received patent and trademark approval for the development of the world’s first luxury underwater hotel in the Caribbean in September. This, said the press release, paved the way for foreign countries to “take advantage of this potential lucrative underwater tourism.”

Among the group’s wide array of coastal locations was the corral-studded Red Sea, with Egypt and Israel specifically mentioned. Dubai was another Middle East location, and the archipelago nation Maldives, with its abundance of resorts, was also selected.

Tony Webb, the head of the company, compared the concept to outer-space tourism, noting the much lower costs of developing and staying at an “inner space,” or underwater hotel. He also said the technology used to allow the hotel to navigate underwater would be able to protect it in the event of a hurricane, although that would not be a concern in very arid Eilat.

Eilat, Israel’s southern Red Sea resort that is a hub for domestic and international travelers to the Jewish state, already boasts an underwater dining room at the Red Sea Star. Israel is also developing the Ramon International Airport just outside the city in the Timna Valley, in the hopes of boosting tourism.

The city has come attack by rocket fire from groups connected to Al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula. A series of cross-border terrorist attacks in 2011 killed seven Israelis and five Egyptians.