The Economic Research Department of the Israel Hotels Association published data for February 2019 on hotel stays compared with the same period over the past two years.

In February, 883,000 tourist stays were recorded, an increase of 7% compared with February of last year and a 27% increase compared to February 2017.

Tourist hotel stays constituted about 53% of all stays, and most of these were in Jerusalem (approximately 34%) and in Tel Aviv (approximately 20% of all stays).

The highest changes were recorded in Nazareth (43% compared to last year), Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee (up 17% compared to last year), Jerusalem (9% compared with last year) and Herzliya (24%). The rise in tourist stays in the Jerusalem, Nazareth and Tiberias area can be attributed to pilgrim tourism that arrived in these areas during the month.