Israel takes a giant leap in tourism sector
Israel is becoming a favourite tourist spot for tourists and the initial statistics affirm this. As per reports, Israel had 1.36 million visitors from January-April this year. In this, 4,08,000 tourists alone visited Israel in April 2018 when compared to 3,50,000 last April, recording a 17%hike. The Ministry of Tourism claims that the revenue from tourists in April had exceeded NIS 2.1 billion.
Out of all tourists visited Israel in April, 2,38,000 were from Europe. France, UK, Germany, Poland and Italy were the main contributors. The rise in European tourists is attributed to the Giro d’Italia bicycle race. Tourists from Italy climbed to 15,000, 48 per cent more than in April 2017. Poland was one of the targeted countries of Ministry of Tourism and recorded 18,000 tourists this year, 146 per cent more than last year. However, compared to last April, the number of visitors from UK was 19,300, a depreciation of 13 per cent.
The number of tourists from Asia recorded 35,700, though a low number, there is 32 per cent increase when compared to last year. The service of Air India to Israel shows good impact as 9,400 tourists from India landed there in April. China had almost 10,000 tourists visited Israel in April, 24 per cent increase having a decline in the previous month. 1,05,000 tourists flew from North America, including 80,000 from USA. 14,000 tourists came from Central and South America.
Through massive marketing efforts, The Ministry of Tourism is planning to increase the number of tourists this year. However, the current security threat may hinder the plans as the tourist sector will be the first to get affected due to this. This raises a concern that last year’s record 3.6 million tourists may not be surpassed.
However, The Ministry of Tourism is optimistic about taking advantage of the coverage gained by Israel in the Giro d’Italia events. “We estimate that over 500 million people worldwide have been exposed to the Ministry of Tourism campaign to date through various media. Even if there is some security event or other, we will be able to recover quickly and regain the high levels of tourism. It is easier to regain something that exists than to create something that never was,” said Yariv Levin, Minister of Tourism.
Yariv Levin also talked about the grants that his ministry was providing to foreign airlines for introducing new routes to Israel. “We invested NIS 100 million in grants for airlines. This investment has proved to be extremely worthwhile,” he said.
