Tourist overnight stays in Israel plunge 78.5 pct due to conflict

JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — The overnight stays of foreign tourists at Israel’s hotels plunged by 78.5 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2024, according to data released by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.
From January to October this year, there were only 1.61 million overnight stays in Israeli hotels, down from 7.5 million during the same period in 2023, most of which occurred before the outbreak of the ongoing conflict.
In October 2024 alone, only 114,700 tourist overnight stays were recorded in Israeli hotels, compared with 323,500 in October last year, and 673,000 in September 2023.
In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, tourist overnight stays in Israeli hotels reached an all-time annual high of 12.1 million, with 9.97 million of those between January and October. ■