ISRAEL: TOURISM INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO GROW

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Israel has continued to grow in terms of its tourism industry. It is attractive mainly for religious tourists but those who like diving visit too.

The biggest draw of Israel involves the country’s numerous religious sites. It is the absolute core of religious tourism. However, not only believers arrive in Israel. Those who merely take an interest in any kind of religion visit the country too. This is shown by the fact that 77% of tourists, who came to Israel in 2010, visited the Western Wall and 61% spent time in and around the Church of Holy Sepulchre. Other religious sites were visited just as frequently and altogether accounted for the fact that 3.45 million people came to Israel last year, leaving a total of $4.1 billion behind.

The figure is 26% higher than that of 2009, meaning that Israel has been growing on a serious scale in recent times. It is not only about religious sites as Israel also has some of the world’s most attractive diving locations and more than favorable climate. The great news for the Israelis is that 2.8 million of the above-mentioned tourists stayed for more than one night thus bringing a fair amount of money to local hospitality industry.

Getting to Israel is also an important way of making cash. Although 68% of the incoming tourists came by air, the luxury cruise ship industry did not suffer in the slightest with 160,000 people coming by sea. In the end it does not matter how the tourists travel there as the more boats and planes arrive the better for Israelis.