Tourists from Russia have been one of Israel’s biggest rising tourism sectors for a while now (we wrote about their increasing numbers two years ago) but it’s always nice to see confirmation: some 10,000 National Geographic readers in Russia voted Israel as one of the top 3 destinations in their annual competition to discover the top travel hot spots.
Israel actually came in second, coming in behind Italy, and beating out Holland, who came in third.
The National Geographic Traveler Awards in Russia annually picks out the very best destinations, with countries first selected by travel operators and agents, and then the magazine’s readers get to vote on their favorites. This year there were 48 countries to choose from, so well done Israel!
Last year some 550,000 tourists from Russia came to Israel, and those numbers look on target to be beaten in 2011. A big factor in the rising numbers is the cancellation of the visa needed by Russian citizens to visit the Holy Land.
To all our Russian visitors we say: Добро пожаловать в Израиль!
We’re sure some of these amazing things to see and do in Israel have been a big factor in Israel’s popularity, not just in Russia, but across the world!