Israeli investigators have busted a ring of travel agency officials suspected of price fixing for school trips to Nazi death camp sites in Poland, police say.

Nine people were arrested from various travel agencies suspected of colluding during a government tender to fix prices to prevent competition for Poland trips, spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Lawyers for the suspects, six of them agency executives, according to Israeli media, could not be reached for comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the Education Ministry, about 30,000 Israeli high-school students go on organised week-long trips to Poland every year where they visit old Nazi death camps, remnants of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust, and other sites.

The Education Ministry sees the trips as a way of preserving the memory of the Holocaust among young generations.

However, the ministry has drawn criticism in the past over the cost of the trips.

In December it said it had moved to lower the price by nearly a fifth to around 4,500 Shekels ($1,635).

Reuters