Incoming tourism drops only 1% in 2014
Summer's Gaza conflict had a minor effect on overall number of visitors to Israel this year, thanks to a significant increase in arrivals in first half of year.
Moreover, the drop in the overall number of visitors (including one-day visitors who did not spend the night in Israel) amounted to only 7% in 2014, thanks to the significant increase in incoming tourism in the first half of the year.
A total of 3.3 million visitors arrived in Israel in the past year, including 2.9 million tourists who stayed in the country overnight.
About 626,000 of the visitors came from the United States (19%), 567,000 arrived from Russia, 301,000 from France, 196,000 from Germany and 179,000 from Britain.
Tourism Ministry Director-General Amir Halevy says Operation Protective Edge did stop the tourism momentum, but that a light can already be seen at the end of the tunnel.
"A recovery will be felt in the first half of 2015. The ministry's NIS 500 million ($128 million) aid package to tourism businesses has bolstered the industry and is restoring it as a growth engine which generates tens of billions of shekels for the Israeli economy," he added.
The Tourism Ministry estimates the output from tourism in Israel at NIS 41 billion, including NIS 19 billion in income from foreign tourists, NIS 12 billion in income from domestic tourism and NIS 10 billion income from outgoing tourism.
Some 110,000 workers are employed in Israel's tourism industry, about one-third of them in hotels.
