Israel’s Tourism Ministry expects 60,000 tourists to visit during the week of Passover.
According to the ministry, 916,300 tourists have visited Israel since the beginning of the year, including 352,000 in March.
Many tourist sites will be open to the public for free, including guided tours in English, Arabic, Russian and Hebrew.
The tourism industry is looking to bounce back after suffering low numbers during the COVID pandemic. Travel restrictions only began easing in the middle of 2022.
According to the Tourism Ministry, 2.7 million foreign tourists spent at least one night in Israel in 2022. For comparison, Israel’s best year for tourism was in 2019 when more than 4.5 million tourists spent at least one night.
Tourism also contributed 13.5 billion shekels ($3.78 billion) to the Israeli economy in 2022, per Tourism Ministry figures.
The ministry projects that Passover tourism will contribute 340 million shekels ($95 million) to the Israeli economy.
Tourism Minister Haim Katz said, “The positive trend in the arrival of tourists, along with the increase in domestic tourism, lead to the prosperity of the tourism industry and the strengthening of the economy. We will bring a proper budget to build and upgrade infrastructure and accelerate marketing operations through new channels. I invite the general public to come out and travel in our beautiful country.”
The week-long holiday of Passover begins on Wednesday night.
