The tourism industry of Israel witnessed a rise of nearly 27% in January 2017 over the same month in 2016, according to the official figures of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). As much as 222,000 people entered Israel in January, out of which 210,000 were on tourist visas.
About 188,000 of the tourist visas were issued to people who had come to Israel by air.
And, 22,000 had arrived in Israel through land entry points, as per the CBS numbers. Most of the people who had entered by land were part of tour groups that had arrived in Israel from Jordan. This is actually an excursion that is growing in popularity among Europeans.
The entries through land points were up by 107% in January 2017 over the last year. The entries via air were up by 35% and were conducted by direct flights to Eilat.
United States was the biggest supplier of tourists with as many as 51,700 tourist entries that were recorded, that marks a 16% rise in tourism figures from the same in January 2016. Russia occupied the second position that provided 20,300 tourists in January that represented an increase of 26% over last year.
About 12,700 tourists had come from France.
On the other hand, China had supplied 9,800 tourists – an increase of 196% over the number in January 2016.
Yariv Levin, the tourism minister said that for many months Israel had seen a record number of tourist entries into this country.
He feels that diligence, planned policy have been instrumental in driving the tourist arrivals.
