Jerusalem takes top spot in tourism growth among 100 cities

Jerusalem experienced a 38 percent growth in tourism in 2018. 

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Jerusalem is leading the growth in inbound tourism arrivals in 2018, making Israel’s capital one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, London-based market research company Euromonitor International said.

Jerusalem leads the global tourism growth with 38 percent more arrivals in 2018, after a 32 percent jump in 2017.

The holy city benefits from “relative stability and a strong marketing push,” according to Euromonitor International’s Top 100 City Destinations report.

Worldwide, inbound arrivals will probably increase 5 percent to reach 1.4 billion trips in 2018, Euromonitor said.

Visits to this year’s top-100 city destinations are set to increase by 7.5 percent overall. Asia continues to rise in the rankings, taking 41 of this year’s top 100 cities.

Bangkok, London, Singapore, Macau, Paris, Dubai, New York, Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen, China, round out the 10-most popular destinations, according to Euromonitor.

Israel in recent years has experienced a significant boost to its tourism industry. The all-time 2017 record for incoming tourism to Israel was broken in November when it surpassed 3.6 million tourists. The Ministry of Tourism expects that by the end of 2018, at least 4 million tourists will have visited Israel.

Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin said an increase of tens of percentage points in incoming tourism over the past two years has placed Israel among the world’s fastest-growing countries in tourism.

Europeans accounted for the majority of tourists to Israel this year. The largest number of tourists came from the Russian Federation, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Among Asian countries, the highest number of tourists to Israel in 2018 came from China, with India in second place.

Israel21C contributed to this report.