The Hotel Association’s Economic Research Department published the October 2019 data on hotels compared to the same period in the past two years. In October, when Yom Kippur and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot began this year, about 1.1 million tourists stayed overnight, down 19% compared to October last year, and dropping 8% compared to October 2017. About 36% of tourists stayed in Jerusalem and about 21% were in Tel Aviv.

In order to counteract the effect of the holiday season that occurred this year on different dates than last year, the September and October figures were summarized together: during these months, there was a 4% increase in tourist accommodation compared to the same period last year. The total number of overnight stays increased by 5%.

Room occupancy in October, averaged about 68%, down 13% from October 2018, and down 11% from October 2017.

The highest occupancy rate was recorded in Nazareth, 81%, then Jerusalem with 76%, Dead Sea with 72%, Tel Aviv and Eilat with 70% each, Tiberias 67%, Haifa 63%, Netanya 62% and Herzliya with 60% occupancy .

The number of rooms was 55,746, up 2% from last year and 4% compared to 2017, due to the opening of new hotels and the addition of more rooms.

In the first ten months of the year (cumulative January-October), 10 million tourists stayed overnight, up 4% compared to last year.