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Israel: 2.18 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2018

Israel: 2.18 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2018

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 2.18 million foreign visitors came to Israel in the first six months of the year, a 19% increase over the same period in 2017.

The Israel Hotel Association reports that foreign visitors spent a record 5.94 million nights at Israeli hotels during the first half of 2018, up about 13% over the first half of last year and 43% higher than in 2016.

The data also show that about half of all stays at Israeli hotels between January and June of this year were made by foreign visitors and half by Israelis.

Fully 34% of all foreign tourist hotel nights for first six months of this year were spent in Jerusalem, with another 24% in Tel Aviv.

Tourism in Israel is one of Israel’s major sources of income, with a record 3.6 million tourist arrivals in 2017, and 25 percent growth since 2016 and contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism and ecotourism. Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world. In 2009, the two most visited sites were the Western Wall and the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai;the most popular paid tourist attraction is Masada. The most visited city is Jerusalem and the most visited site was the Western Wall. The largest percentage of tourists come from the United States accounting for 19% of all tourists, followed by Russia, France, (Germany), the United Kingdom, China, Italy, Poland, and Canada.

Jerusalem is the most-visited city with 3.5 million tourist arrivals annually. One of the oldest cities in the world, it is the proclaimed capital and largest city of Israel, if the area and population of East Jerusalem are included. It is a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – and hosts many historical, archaeological, religious and other attractions.

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