Those tourists keep on coming! August was another record breaking month according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, with some 280,000 tourists popping over to the Holy Land – yet again a record for that month. That’s also up some 7% over 2009 and 6% over June 2008, Israel’s record tourism year to date. And so far for 2010, 2.2 million tourists have visited Israel – 30% up on last year and 10% on 2008.
What these impressive stats mean is a happy Tourism Minister, but also a more pressing need for more hotel rooms. Investment has already been made in some 21 hotel projects in prime tourist locations, but will they be enough if these stats keep on rising at this rate?
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov had this to say:
Competition with neighboring countries is continually increasing and will do so for the next few years. This situation requires a thorough and focused reassessment of the tourism industry in general and the hotel industry in particular. In order to compete, the Tourism Ministry will invest a significant part of its budget over the coming years in offering assistance to entrepreneurs.
The ministry has allocated NIS 400 million in 2010 to assist in hotel projects, whose total investment stands at NIS 2 billion and will lead to the construction of thousands of hotel rooms and generate income of hundreds of thousands of shekels into the economy and thousands of new jobs.