In May 2023, tourist overnight stays amounted to approximately 1 million overnight stays – a 16% decrease compared to May 2019.

Higher than average decreases were recorded in Eilat – a 62% decrease compared to 2019, the Dead Sea with a 39% decrease, Netanya with a 40% decrease, Haifa with a 19% decrease, Nazareth with a 20% decrease, Jerusalem with a 10% decrease. In Herzliya there was a decrease of 23% and in Tel Aviv a decrease of 2%.

Israeli overnight stays: In May, Israeli overnight stays totaled approximately 1.25 million, a 9% decrease compared to May 2022, a 17% increase compared to May 2019.

Total overnight stays: amounted to about 2.3 million – a decrease of 1% compared to May 2019. The national room occupancy amounted to about 70% compared to about 66% in May 2022 and 74% in May 2019.

Occupancies higher than the national average were recorded in Herzliya, Eilat and Jerusalem with approximately 75% in each city and Tel Aviv with approximately 71%. In the Dead Sea, an occupancy of about 69% was recorded, Tiberias with about 66%, Haifa with about 64%, Netanya with about 62% and Nazareth with about 59%. Jerusalem with about 70%, Nazareth with about 68% and Tel Aviv with about 67%.

The hotel association stated: “One year since the return to normality and the opening of the skies and incoming tourism does show signs of recovery, but the numbers are lower than the expectations of a return to pre-pandemic figures in 2019, now it is clear that this will not happen. It is estimated that we will end the year with 1.5-2 million less overnight stays from 2019. A great and precise marketing effort is required in order to obtain the 2019 data, speed up the pace and narrow the gap”.

In the first five months of the year, 9.5 million overnight stays were recorded in tourist hotels in Israel (9.9 million in 2019, 7.7 million overnight stays in 2022).

4.2 million were tourist overnight stays – 44% of the total overnight stays (53% in 2019, 27% in 2022). The occupancy of rooms in hotels was 62% (68% in 2019, 51% in 2022).

The occupancy of the rooms by districts ranges from 56% in the Haifa district to 66% in the Jerusalem district.

Segmenting by selected localities, it was found that in May the highest room occupancy was recorded in Jerusalem (75%) and in Eilat 74%.