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The Ministry of Tourism has reported that for the first time in 2009, an increase in the number of incoming tourists to Israel was recorded during October. There were a total of 330,000 visitors, an all time record for the month and an increase of 9 percent compared to October 2008.  Last year saw a record number of incoming tourists visiting Israel.

From the start of 2009 until the end of October, a total of 2.3 million tourists visited Israel, a fall of 12 percent compared to the same period last year, when 2.6 million visited the country. During October there was a 6 percent increase in the number of visitors who stayed for a minimum of one night in the country, compared to last year.  There was an increase of 20 percent in the number of day visitors to Israel, while the number of visitors from cruise ships also increased, totaling 23,500 visitors.

Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, who was on a working visit to South America, the first such trip by an Israeli Minister of Tourism in the last 10 years, indicated that “this data is as a consequence of focused marketing, segmenting a target audience and creating a continuous marketing infrastructure, with the new position of Israel as a holy land with its centre in Jerusalem."

The minister added that the increase recorded in October was encouraging, but is not satisfactory and the ministry will continue to work to create a tourism revolution, as he had declared the previous week at the Herzliya Tourism conference, with his own target to attract an additional million tourists a year within three years.

He also stated that the plan will be implemented by increased marketing of Israel to the world, the addition of hotel rooms of differing standards and the simplification of the bureaucratic process which today prevents the full tourist potential from being realized.