Israel continues to develop its tourism offerings. There are new hotels, attractions, and resumed flights from airlines such as United and Delta.
Lorin Maugery, southern region director for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, says this is very important for the tourism industry.
"On the hotel side of things, we have some new hotels from the north to the south. An Israeli hotel chain is building eight new hotels. You have some international players who are entering the market. This is a good sign for the tourism industry to know that the main hotel players still support and believe in tourism to Israel," says Maugery.
While things such as software, research and development, and manufacturing have become some of Israel's top industries, tourism still brings in revenue, especially for small businesses built around tourists wanting to see Israel's religious sites, museums, and other venues.
Tourism has been down since the October 7th terrorist attack from Hamas. However, Maugery says things are improving, and Israel's optimistic to see bigger numbers in 2026.
"Tourists are definitely coming back. We've seen an increase of more than 16% compared to last year. Since the beginning of the year, there's almost 1 million tourists who came to Israel, about 800,000. Which is still very promising and positive considering the last two years that were very bad for the industry, obviously," Maugery informs.
