All the news about Israeli tourism

According to data from the Hotels Association, October 2009 was the first month this year that recorded an increase in tourist hotel nights. The number of hotel nights for Israeli guests also increased and was up by 13 percent.

The number of foreign tourists arriving in Israel increased by 9 percent in October, this lead to a minimal increase of 1.5 percent in the number of hotel nights recorded.  It was the first time this year that an increase in hotel nights for overseas guests was recorded. The total number of hotel nights recorded in October 2009 was 942,000, this compared to 928,000 last October.

From the data, released by the Israel Hotels Association, an increase in tourist hotel nights was recorded in Tel Aviv, up by 27 percent, in Haifa by 16 percent, Eilat by 4 percent, and Herzliya up by 2 percent.  However both Jerusalem and Tiberias recorded a fall in the number of tourist hotel nights.  Since the start of the year a 22 percent fall in the number of tourist hotel nights was registered, totaling 6.7 million hotel nights.

The number of hotel nights for Israeli guests increased by 13 percent compared to last October, totaling 1.2 million hotel nights. Three cities that recorded a fall in tourist hotel nights during the month, benefited from large increases in the number of Israeli hotel nights. Tel Aviv, which recorded a large increase in tourist hotel nights, also showed a significant increase in the number of Israeli hotel nights.

In total, hotels recorded about 2 million hotel nights, an increase of 7 percent compared to October 2008.  Since the start of the year there was an overall decrease of 8 percent in the number of hotel nights, compared to the corresponding period last night, with a total of 16.8 million hotel nights.

The director general of the Israel Hotels Association, Shmuel Zuriel, stressed that the required marketing investment should be directed on getting tourists to extend their stays in Israel at the expense of those visiting for one of two days or those visiting relatives.