365,000 tourists entered Israel in June: 18% increase

365,000 tourists entered Israel last June - an 18% increase over the number of tourists who entered Israel in June 2018. Since the beginning of the year, in January-June 2019, 2.265 million tourists entered Israel, compared with 2.063 million in the same period last year.
According to the Ministry of Tourism's estimate, incoming tourism in June 2019 is NIS 1.9 billion. Since the beginning of the year, tourism revenues have been estimated at NIS 11.7 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
The lion's share came from Europe with 177.5 thousand tourists - up 19% from June last year. Countries that saw a marked increase were Germany, from which 21.2 thousand tourists arrived last June - an increase of 47% compared to June 2018; And Portugal, from which 2,000 tourists arrived - twice as much as last year, in view of the opening of direct flights by the local company Tap and the strengthening of El Al flights on the line.
According to the hotel association, the cities that benefited mainly from tourists were Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The country from which the largest number of tourists arrived in Europe is France with 27.3 thousand tourists. Of all European countries, the number of tourists visiting Israel increased in June compared to last year.
Some 132,000 tourists came from North America last month, most of them from the United States, reflecting a 11% increase over last June, while the US flight schedule was boosted this summer with EL AL direct flights to San Francisco and Las Vegas and a new direct flight Of United to Washington.
In Asia, 31.5 thousand tourists arrived in Asia, in part because of a dramatic increase in the number of tourists from Japan. Their number was 14,000 - twice that of last June.