There were 244,000 visitor entries in February 2014, 5% more than in February 2013.
Tourism reached an all-time high for February. There were 244,000 visitor entries in February 2014, 5% more than in February 2013, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported today. There were 221,500 tourists (visitors staying for more than one night), 21% more than in the corresponding month.
191,000 tourists arrived by air in February, 19% more than in the corresponding month, including 6,300 tourists on direct flights to Eilat. Overland tourist entries rose 34% to 31,000 tourists, of whom 22,000 came from Jordan and 8,000 came through Taba to Eilat.
The number of day visitors fell 55% to 22,000 visitors in February, including 7,000 visitors on cruise ships. The number of visitors on cruise ships fell by 73% from February 2012.
There were 473,000 visitor entries in January-February 2014, up 5% over the corresponding period in 2013, including 421,000 tourists.
"January and February were an excellent start to the tourism year 2014, following on from the record-breaking numbers of incoming tourists in 2013," said Minister of Tourism Uzi Landau. "We are working intensively to improve the quality of the tourism product, to effectively market Israel around the world and to strengthen domestic tourism so that 2014 will also close as a record year for tourism."
Source: Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 10, 2014