Number of tourists visiting Israel fell by 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023

While approximately 180,000 tourists visited Israel in the last quarter of 2023, 930,000 people visited during the same period the previous year. According to data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the contraction in the tourism sector in the last quarter of 2023 reached its lowest level since the 2000s, when the Second Intifada began, excluding the COVID-19 period in 2020 when global travel came to a halt.

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Number of tourists visiting Israel fell by 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023

Israel, which has been continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip for 5 months and has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, saw the number of tourists visiting the country in the last quarter of 2023 decline by 81.5 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Israel is experiencing its worst period in the tourism sector with the attacks it has been carrying out on the Gaza Strip since October 7.

In addition to the attacks on Gaza, the clashes that have been ongoing with Hezbollah on the Lebanon border since October 8 and the increased intensity of violence in the West Bank are causing tourists to stay away from the country.

Immediately after the attacks began on October 7, the vast majority of airlines and tourism companies announced that they were suspending their flights to Israel. Although some of them later resumed their flights gradually, the serious decline in the number of tourists coming to the country continued.

As the attacks enter their 5th month, major airlines have suspended their flights until further notice.

LOWEST LEVEL SINCE THE 2000S

According to figures shared by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the contraction in the tourism sector in the last quarter of 2023 reached its lowest level since the 2000s, when the Second Intifada began, excluding the COVID-19 period in 2020.

According to the data, 930,000 people visited Israel in the same period the previous year, while approximately 180,000 tourists visited in the last quarter of 2023.

The number of tourists coming to Israel, which has committed numerous massacres in the Gaza Strip for nearly 5 months, declined by 81.5 percent during this period.

COMPANIES CANCELLED THEIR TOURS

Most international tourism companies cancelled their tours due to rocket attacks on coastal cities by Palestinian groups responding to Israel's attacks on Gaza.

Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast, the city of Eilat on the Red Sea coast, Haifa, settlements on the Gaza border, and cities on the northern border with Lebanon were among the most visited places.

Due to its attacks on the Gaza Strip, Israel is also facing increasing tensions with Lebanon's Hezbollah in the north. Israel has had to evacuate tens of thousands of Israeli settlers from their residences to different regions due to the ongoing clashes.

Similarly, while the city of Eilat in southern Israel has faced drone attacks by the Houthis in Yemen, Jerusalem has experienced one of its worst seasons for Jewish and Christian religious tourism.

'ISRAEL IS ISOLATED'

Yossi Fattal, Chairman of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association, said in a statement last month that Israel has become 'an isolated country like North Korea' and that dozens of companies are reluctant to fly to Israel after the war broke out in the Gaza Strip.

Fattal, who brings together and represents travel agencies working in the field of incoming tourism in Israel, stated in a statement to the Israeli newspaper Maariv on February 21, "Israel is completely isolated from the world. Currently, 80 percent of flights in Israel are carried out by aircraft belonging to Israel's official airline, El Al Airlines."

NUMBER OF AIRLINES DROPPED FROM 250 TO 45

Fattal stated that 250 airlines were operating in Israel before October 7, 2023, when the attacks on Gaza began, but this number has dropped to 45.

After almost all foreign airlines stopped their flights to and from Israel in the last quarter of last year, the national airline El Al and other Israeli airlines monopolized round-trip flights to Tel Aviv.

El Al Airlines had announced twice in the early days of the Gaza attacks that it expected to take a financial hit from the conflicts in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, but it turned out that the picture is now the exact opposite.

El Al ended 2023 with increased profits, reporting a net profit of 117 million dollars, and net profit in the fourth quarter of 2023 reached 39.7 million dollars, a 370 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

A report published in January by the Israeli website Calcalist also stated that while 900,000 tourists were expected to arrive in Israel in the 3-month period after the start of the attacks on Gaza, this number remained at 190,000.

News Source: AA