The Ministry of Tourism presented this week the Ministry’s work plan for 2023 to the members of the Economy Committee in the Knesset.

The ultimate goal of the office is to increase the economic and social contribution of the tourism industry to the country, while increasing tourism traffic and income from it, developing diverse products and increasing competition, improving tourist satisfaction, promoting and strengthening the elements of service and human capital, and developing infrastructure. The office will base its operations on upgrading the set of studies and surveys conducted in Israel and abroad.

In the field of marketing, under the guidance of Minister of Tourism Haim Katz, the office will formulate a plan to break into new countries and target audiences, with an emphasis on Asia, and will perfect the advertising campaigns, while measuring effectiveness and in-depth research accompanying its actions.

In improving the tourist experience in Israel, the ministry will place emphasis on border crossings, the treatment of tourists and value for money.

The ministry will work to remove barriers in the planning processes for the establishment of accommodation facilities throughout the country, following the goal of increasing supply, and following that – increasing competition.

The ministry will upgrade the professional training of the industrial workers and will assist in the reinforcement of manpower to deal with the shortage in the industry.

The ministry will provide support of up to 20 percent of the investment amount to entrepreneurs who will establish hotels in Israel and will work to encourage foreign investments.

Tourist arrivals data: In the first half of the year, 1.97 million tourists entered Israel, who spent approximately 11.7 ILS billion in Israel.

In June 2023, 322.9 thousand tourist arrivals were recorded compared to 244.5 thousand in June 2022 and 365.1 thousand in June 2019. This is an increase of about 32% compared to June last year and a decrease of about 12% compared to June 2019.

Based on the rate of arrivals so far, it is possible to estimate the number of tourist arrivals for the entire year 2023. At this point, the estimate updated every month, depending on the number of arrivals, is 3.9 million.