Foreign visitors in Israel surge in 2022 amid post-COVID tourism recovery

JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign tourists visiting Israel in 2022 reached 2.7 million, according to an annual report issued by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

The figure represents a 6.8-fold increase, compared to 396,500 foreign tourists who visited Israel in 2021, when the country imposed entry restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vaccinated and recovered tourists were allowed to enter Israel in January of last year. Two months later, Israel opened its borders to all tourists.

Despite the surge in the number of foreign tourists last year, the figure is still 41.3 percent lower than the pre-pandemic level of 2019, when 4.6 million tourists travelled to Israel.

Israel's revenues from incoming tourism, excluding flight costs, stood at about 13.5 billion shekels (3.85 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, compared to about 23 billion shekels in 2019, according to the country's Tourism Ministry.

Out of 2.7 million foreign tourists visiting Israel last year, 810,500 were from the United States, 235,500 from France, and 177,900 from Britain, according to the report.