As we told you back in June, Russia loves Israel. And that love seems to have gotten a whole lot deeper over the summer, with some 34,000 Russians visiting Israel in August alone (that’s a whopping 35% increase from the same month in 2008)…
Recent numbers released from the Israeli Tourism Ministry show that August was a hot, hot, hot month for tourism, with some hefty increases in tourist numbers for the month from a mighty long list of countries (and not just the Russians, as mentioned above), including:
- Almost 47,000 American tourists visited Israel in August, an increase of 5% compared to 2008.
- 19,000 Brits checked out the Holy Land, also an increase of 5% compared to August 2008.
- Swedish tourists upped their numbers 24% compared to 2008, to a modest 970 in total for August.
- Australian visitors to Israel also upped their numbers some 10% compared to 2008.
- Nigerian pilgrims visiting Israel in August increased their numbers 25% compared to 2008.
- Egyptians visiting their neighbors in the Holy Land also increased some 30%.
However, despite all those encouraging numbers, there was actually a drop of some 3% in the total number of tourists (some 252,028) entering Israel during August. Not sure quite how after all those impressive percentage boosts listed above, but there you go, who are we to argue with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.
The global economic crisis has certainly hit tourism to Israel, as elsewhere throughout the world, and the numbers for the year from January through to August reflect this – some 1,667,055 tourists have entered Israel in this period, a drop of 16% compared to the same period in 2008. Israel was also hit at the start of the year after the War in Gaza put many people off visiting Israel.
Anyway, to all our Russian visitors, we once again say (hopefully correctly!): Добро пожаловать в Израиль!