Incoming tourism down 25% in Q1 2009

Data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that there was a 25 percent fall in incoming tourism to Israel during the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same period last year.   Thanks to the military operation in Gaza and the ongoing economic slowdown,  there was also a significant fall in one day tourism, down by 50 percent on the previous year.

Tourist traffic, both incoming to Israel and outgoing showed significant falls in the first three months of the year; this largely as a result of the military operation in the south of the country during January 2009 and the continuing world economic crisis.  

In the first quarter of 2009 there were a total of 604,000 departures from Israel, a fall of 15 percent compared to the same period last year.  Of that number, 549,000 traveled by air, a reduction of 13 percent on 2008.   

There were a total of 483,000 arrivals between January and March, a fall of 25 percent on last year.  Of that number, 438,000 were tourists, a reduction of 22 percent on the same period in 2008.  The number of day visitors to Israel totaled 45,000 a decrease of 50 percent on the same period last year.

During the month of March there were 180,000 tourist arrivals; of that number 151,000 arrived by air, 29,000 at land crossings and a handful by sea.