Best ever month for tourism in Israel
Over 400,000 tourists visited Israel in October – 80,000 tourists and 23% more than April this year which held the record up until now.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said: “This week, we welcomed Israel’s 3 millionth tourist earlier than expected, mainly because of the exceptional tourist statistics for October – over 400,000 in one month. This is an unprecedented statistic, that reflects an increase of 80,000 tourists on the previous monthly record to date. We have now completed a full 12 months of consecutive records – an entire year of a clear and sharp trend of increases in incoming tourism.” The minister added that “the numbers we are witnessing this year are unmatched. These are not random statistics, but rather the direct results of strenuous work, a change in marketing strategy and an increase in flights.”
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 426,400 tourist entries were recorded in October 2017, about 57% more than October 2016. In the period January-October 2017, about 3 million tourist entries were recorded, 26% increase on the same period last year. Revenue from tourism in October reached about A$760 million.
There was a 106% increase in day visitors compared to last October.
There was a 57% increase in tourist entries in October 2017 as compared to October 2016 and 47% increase on October 2015. 373,900 tourist entries were by air, an increase of 54.1% on October 2016 and 45.45% on October 2015. 52,500 tourists arrived via the land crossings, of whom 41,700 came via Jordan and about 10,800 via Egypt. 37,500 arrived as day visitors in October, 106% increase on October 2016 and 5.6% more than in 2015.
January-October 2017
In January-October 2017, about 3 million tourist entries were recorded, an increase of 25.6% on the same period in 2016 (2.4 million) and 24% more than in 2015. Since the beginning of the year, tourism has injected $4.1 billion into the Israeli economy