Israel: Tourist attraction
Photo: AP
February sees 200,000 tourists arrive in Israel
A stellar month for Israeli tourism, resembling record breaking tourism year of 2000
Welcome to Israel. The month of February 2008 saw 200,000 tourists arrive in Israel, an increase of 46% in comparison to 2007, and a 34% rise from February 2006.
This marks a stellar start for Israeli tourism in 2008, which is quickly stating to resemble the year 2000; a record-breaking year fir Israeli tourism.
Inflated Numbers
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How did these many visitors arrive in Israel? Most tourists opted to fly in to Israel, with 141,000 tourists landing in Israel this February, an increase of some 27%.Of these visitors, 4,800 flew in directly to Eilat, an increase of some 13%.
Some 25,000 tourists stayed in Israel for just a single day, especially visitors from Poland, Russia and the Ukraine who opted to enter Israel through the Taba border crossing.
The first two months of 2008 saw more than 380,000 tourists visit Israel, a staggering 51% increase from 2007, and a 34% rise from 2006.
Which are the leading countries in terms of Israeli tourism? The United States tops the list providing more than a quarter of all tourism to Israel, followed closely by France (11%) and Russia which provides many day trippers to Israel. Poland, Italy, the Ukraine, Germany and England also rank high in terms of visit to Israel.
This report on Israeli tourism further revealed that individuals form more and more countries worldwide, most notably China and Korea, are beginning to show a keen interest in visiting Israel.
Tourism Ministry Director-General Shaul Tzemach said in response to these tourism figures that “the Tourism Ministry has launched a massive campaign to promote Israeli tourism in the US, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and France, so that these figures keep on rising and increasing in spite of the current global economic crisis.”
