The year 2009 will end with a 6% drop in the Israeli tourists' visits to the United States, according to a forecast published recently by the US Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.
According to the forecast, only 314,000 will have visited the US by the end of the year, compared to 332,000 in 2008. The forecast's authors noted, however, that 2010 would see a recovery of 3% in Israeli tourists' entries to the US, and that in 2013 Israeli tourism will cross the threshold of 400,000 tourists for the first time.
The forecast also revealed that Israel
– which is 20th in the number of visitors' entries to the US, will reach the 18th place in 2013, preceding Switzerland and Sweden.
According to the American forecast, the global financial crisis will lead to an average drop of 78% in the number of tourists who entered the US in 2009. Only two countries among the top 20 countries in visits to the US – Brazil and Switzerland – will record a rise in the number of tourists entering the country (Brazil with a 6% increase and Switzerland with a 1% increase).
Countries such as Mexico, Japan and England are expected to record a 12% drop in the number of tourists visiting the US.
In total, according to the American forecast, 2009 is expected to end with entries of slightly more than 53 million tourists. In the post-crisis era, 2013 is expected to end with entries of 63 million tourists.
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