Tourists to Israel increase by 17 pct in Jan.-Aug. period

Since the beginning of the year, 2.6 million tourists have entered Israel, a rise of 17 percent compared to the first eight months of 2017, according to a report published Wednesday by the state's Central Bureau of Statistics.

According to the report, a total of 2.8 million people entered Israel in January-August 2018, an increase of 16 percent.

Of the tourists, 2.3 million entered by air (up 16 percent) and 297,000 by land. In addition to these tourists, 162,000 day-visitors entered Israel during those months, who did not stay overnight in Israel.

In the last three months (June-August 2018) an average of 312,000 tourists entered Israel per month, compared with 341,000 in March-May, a decrease of 8.5 percent.

Additional figures show that 5.8 million Israelis traveled abroad since the beginning of the year, up 14 percent from the same period last year (5.1 million departures).

In the summer months of July and August 2.3 million Israelis traveled abroad, an increase of 13 percent compared to the same period in 2017. Last August 1.1 million Israelis traveled abroad.

In the last three months (June to August), 718,000 tourists traveled abroad on average per month, compared with 723,000 in the same period in 2017.