Israel Tourism Profile 2012

Tourists are attracted by Israel's geographical diversity, its archeological and religious sites, the almost unlimited sunshine and modern resort facilities on the Mediterranean, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. In the year 2000, the largest number of tourists ever - 2.41 million - visited the country (compared to 33,000 in 1950, 118,000 in 1960, 441,000 in 1970, 1.18 million in 1980, and 1.34 million in 1990).

Tourism is a major source of foreign currency earnings. In 2000 these amounted to $3.8 billion, i.e. 7.7% of all income from exports and 26.6 percent of the export of services. Although this industry contributes less than 3% to the GNP, it has a foreign currency added value of 85%  (making it the added-value leader among the country's export industries) and employs some 40,000 persons. Tourism, with its enormous potential - only a fraction of which has so far been exploited - is a major factor in Israel's economic growth plans as well as in its drive to eradicate the deficit in its balance of payments.

The worst manifestation of the economic slowdown of 2001 is to be found in this industry: the number of tourists fell by 54 percent to less than 1.2 million, with incomes, employment and investments declining accordingly.