Israeli tourism down 4.5% in 2015

Israeli tourism saw a reduction of 4.5 per cent over the past 11 months compared to the same period of 2014, the Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

Figures released by the Israeli statistics centre showed that 2.6 million tourists visited Israel so far this year, compared to 2.72 million in 2014.

The reason behind this retreat, the report said, is the continuous instability in the Middle East and North African countries, in addition to the consequences of last year’s Israeli war on Gaza.

During the previous 11 months, 586,000 American tourists and 392,000 Russian and 277,000 French visited Israel.

The total number of tourists from Europe who visited Israel is 1.75 million – making up 67.2 per cent of the total number of tourists visiting the country.

According to the statistics, the tourism industry recorded a decrease of two per cent since October due to the ongoing uprising in the country, and decreased by 11 per cent compared to the same period in 2013.

Tourism contributed 16 per cent to Israel’s GDP the last year, this figure is expected to reduce to 12 per cent this year.