The Non-Accidental Tourist

Omer Yaniv
Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research www.jiis.org

Jerusalem is considered the most popular city in Israel for visitors from abroad, serving as a tourist destination with important religious and historical significance. The city has religious value for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, as well as an enormous variety of evidence and relics from different historical eras. According to data of the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2015 about 3.1 million tourists and day-visitors entered Israel. A survey on incoming tourism conducted by the Ministry of Tourism found that 75% of the visitors to Israel during that year traveled to Jerusalem – the highest percentage among Israel’s cities.
The Old City of Jerusalem is regarded as the primary attraction for tourists from abroad, and most of the city’s popular tourist sites are located within or around the Old City. Among the main tourist sites, the Western Wall had the highest percentage of foreign tourists in 2015, at 70%. The Jewish Quarter was in second place, at 65%. Other popular tourist sites in Jerusalem include the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (49% of foreign visitors to Israel), Via Delarosa (41%), and the Mount of Olives overlook (39%). Many visitors come to these sites for religious reasons, as they are holy to Christianity and Judaism (in 2015 only 7% of Israel’s tourists from abroad visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is holy to Muslims). The geographical proximity of Jerusalem’s main tourist sites boosts their popularity because it allows visitors to cover the Old City and surrounding sites within a few hours.
Examining the percentage of visitors at tourist sites by country reveals that for most countries, the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter had the highest percentages of visitors. Overall, according to the Ministry of Tourism survey on incoming tourism, the percentage of European visitors to these sites is lower than the percentage of visitors from other continents. The survey found that in 2015, 96% of visitors from South and Central America traveled to Jerusalem, as did 91% of visitors from African countries, 89% of visitors from North America, and 79% of visitors from Asia. In contrast, only 69% of visitors from European countries traveled to Jerusalem in 2015.

Translation: Merav Datan

The Israeli Tourist Discovers Jerusalem

Omri Gaster

In recent years the Municipality of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Development Authority have put much effort into transforming Jerusalem into an attractive tourist destination for foreign and Israeli tourists through, among other ways, a wide variety of festivals and cultural events. Do such efforts bear fruit? The answer to this question is customarily based on the number of overnight hotel stays. When it comes to the Israeli tourist, the outcome appears to be affirmative in all respects. 

The attached graph shows the change that took place in the number of overnight hotel stays of Israeli tourists in Jerusalem by month for the years 2008, 2010, and 2012. It appears that the peak months for internal tourism are July-August, with August having the highest number of overnight hotel stays by Israelis for each of the three years. 

Between 2008 and 2012 there was a 97% increase in the number of overnight stays of Israelis during the month of August: in 2008 this figure was 70,000 and in 2012 it reached 138,000.

Additional months during which an increase in the number of overnight stays is apparent are November and December. Between the years 2008 and 2012 there was a 44% increase in the number of overnight stays by Israelis during December: in 2008 the number of Israeli overnight stays was about 51,000 and in 2012 this figure was 74,000 overnight stays.

Source of data: Central Bureau of Statistics