The data on visitor arrivals to Israel (tourists) is still far from the 2019 data, revealing that the local tourism industry has not yet fully recovered. According to the CBS in September, there were 277.7 thousand visitor arrivals to Israel compared to 436.5 thousand in September 2019.

Visitor arrivals have not yet reached pre-crisis levels. Tourism during the Jewish holidays is mainly family and Jewish – Israelis who live abroad and return to spend the holidays with their families, and Jews from abroad.

According to the CBS, the highest number of tourist arrivals in the month of September 2022 was from the United States – 67.6 thousand arrivals, which constitute 27.1% of all tourist arrivals to Israel.

The main changes in inbound tourism are due to the impact of the Corona crisis, which is still evident in the world and is expressed, among other things, in the planning of shorter-term trips and less crowded groups, and from the many disruptions – the reopening of the aviation and tourism sectors is characterized by an acute shortage of personnel that leads to congestion at airports in Israel and around the world. Another factor is the disappearance of the many tourists from Russia and Ukraine following the war between the countries.

To all of these we have to add another essential factor, which, while not new, seems to have increased its effect on incoming tourism – the cost of living in Israel, which is one of the highest in the world. According to estimates, this is one of the reasons why Israeli’s vacation abroad, while tourists hesitate to come here, unless they have ties to Israel.