The month of February 2012 has broken records in the tourism industry in Israel, with 232,000 visitor arrivals, 6% more than the same month last year, and an increase of 4% compared to February 2010, which marked the previous record. Out of 232,000 arrivals, 200,000 were tourist entries, another all-time record high.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov stated: “The increased momentum of tourism to Israel is the result of focused and intensive international marketing activity in spite of regional turmoil and the ongoing economic crisis in Europe.”
The Ministry of Tourism has been pushing travel to Israel in new markets such as China, India, South Korea, Russia and South America.
Since the beginning of the year 388,900 tourists have arrived in Israel, similar to 2011, when 388,500 tourists arrived.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, there is a stable trend in flights to Israel. In the month of February there were 172,000 arrivals by air, 1% less than in February 2011. Of those flights, 6,400 tourists flew directly to Eilat and Ovda. Since the beginning of the year, 329,000 tourists have arrived by air, 1% more than January – February 2011.