Tourism to Israel on the rebound

There were 216,400 foreign tourists who visited Israel last month compared with 413,000 in April 2019, before the corona pandemic decimated international tourism, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported on Monday.

Last year, 402,300 foreign tourists visited Israel, compared with 887,100 in 2020 and a record 4.5 million in 2019, the statistics bureau said.

Israel was closed to foreign tourists from mid-March 2020, except for visitors with special permission to enter, due to the pandemic. It briefly reopened in November, before closing again in December due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

Israel reopened to fully vaccinated foreign tourists on January 9, and to all foreign tourists on March 1.

This year has seen 46,700 visitors who entered Israel in January, 90,400 in February and 168,900 in March, bringing the total of foreign tourists in the first four months to 522,400.

Last month also saw 685,600 Israelis traveling abroad, approaching the pre-pandemic level of 798,700 in April 2019, the statistics bureau said. The Passover holiday fell in April in both 2022 and 2019.

In March and April, 1.2 million Israelis traveled abroad, compared with 1.4 million in 2019.

In 2019, Israelis made a record 9.2 million overseas trips, compared with 1.5 million in 2020 and three million in 2021. (Globes/TNS)