Israel's Ministry of Tourism reported that in the first half of 2023, 1.97 million tourists entered Israel. The income brought into the country from the tourism was estimated at the income is estimated at 11.7 billion Shekels (USD 3.2 billion) compared to 5.4 billion Shekels (USD 1.46 billion) in the first half of 2022 (an increase of 109 per cent).
Unfortunately, this figure was way down from the corresponding period in 2019 -pre-Covid crisis - which saw 2.26 million tourists, or about 13 per cent more.
Also, in the first half of 2023 there was an increase in the number of tourists compared to 2019 from the following countries: Cyprus 54 per cent, Philippines 40 per cent, Nigeria 24 per cent, Mexico 23 per cent, Bulgaria 22 per cent, Georgia 19 per cent, Ion 15 per cent, Brazil 13 per cent, USA 12 per cent, and Portugal 11 per cent.
In June 2023, 322,900 tourist arrivals were recorded compared to 244,500 thousand in June 2022 and 365,100 in June 2019. This is an increase of about 32 per cent compared to June last year and a decrease of about 12 per cent compared to June 2019.
Based on the rate of arrivals so far, the ministry said it is possible to estimate the number of tourist arrivals for the entire year 2023. At this stage, the estimate, updated according to the number of arrivals, is 3.9 million. (ANI/TPS)
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