Many Tourists in Israel

My observation in the past couple of weeks of travels around Israel is that there has not been this many tourists since 2000.  An Arutz-7 story suggests that this is more than a feeling.

The Ministry of Tourism reports that 290,000 tourists visited Israel in April 2008, an amount similar to that recorded in Israel’s record-breaking tourism year, 2000.  The totals for this past April were 26% over April 2006, as well as 41% more than April 2007, when tourism was still negatively affected by the Second Lebanon War eight months earlier.  During the first four months of 2008, 936,000 tourists arrived in Israel – an increase of 43% from the same period in 2007, and 34% more than the same period in 2006.  The current pace of growth is consistent with Tourism Ministry goals to attract 2.8 million tourists to Israel this year.  However, Tourism Ministry Director General Sha’ul Tzemach says that this blessing places in bold relief the increasing shortage of available guest rooms in Israel.

The story continues here.  If you’re planning to bring a group, you would do best to get hotel reservations more than a year in advance.