“Signs of recovery”: Israel welcomed 1.3M visitors in 2025

After years of war-related challenges, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) is calling 2025 “a successful year” as it welcomed 1.3 million tourists from around the world.

In a press release Tuesday (Jan. 6), the Ministry said the majority of visitors came from the United States (400,000), France (159,000) and the United Kingdom (95,000).

Additionally, 28,000 tourists were from Canada.  

Of its guests, 88 per cent expressed high satisfaction with their visitors, while 83 per cent stated they would recommend Israel as a destination to others, the Ministry said, citing a recent survey.

Following reduced travel warnings and renewed flight routes, the IMOT is “optimistic about 2026.”

“A year of recovery”

Canada’s current travel advice for Israel is to exercise a high degree of caution, whereas travellers are warned to “avoid all travel” to Palestine due to the ongoing security situation long the Gaza Strip.

In 2025, the IMOT invested in various efforts to encourage inbound tourism and strengthen its domestic product.

READ MORE: PAX on location in Israel: Discovering how to play in the land of pray

It says it invested in infrastructure, advanced projects, and deepened support for entrepreneurs and tourism businesses across the country.

“With the reduction of travel warnings and the increase in flight availability, 2026 is expected to be a year of recovery,” said Minister of Tourism, Haim Katz, in a statement. “The tourist arrival data is encouraging, and the demand for Israel among supportive audiences and key countries, primarily the U.S., remains strong.”

“Accordingly, we are preparing to increase investments in marketing activities. In the past year, steps we took to increase the supply and diversity of hotel rooms have progressed and are bringing real improvements to the future of Israeli tourism.”

“We will continue to work on enhancing the tourist experience through smart investments in infrastructure and activities that yield the greatest benefits for tourism growth.”

Canada’s potential

The Israel-Hamas war has been a crisis of catastrophic proportions that has reached unprecedented levels of death and destruction.

Coming out of the pandemic, Israel’s tourism sector, which once accounted for three percent of the country’s economy, was optimistic – even if visitor numbers were lagging behind pre-COVID highs.

Israel welcomed 3.01 million tourism arrivals in 2023, marking an increase of 12.5 per cent over 2022, when 2.67 million visitors were recorded.

The IMOT was projecting at least 5.5 million visitors in 2023 – a million more than 2019’s record high of 4.55 million.

But October 7, 2023, changed all that when Hamas’ onslaught on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and the kidnapping of 253 others.

The attack brought foreign tourism in Israel to a halt as airlines and tour operators suspended operations in the Middle Eastern country, icing hopes of a post-COVID rebound.

For a while, the notion of a tourism revival in Israel, at a time of armed conflict, seemed implausible.

But industry activity over the past 12 month has suggested otherwise.

Airlines have restored connectivity to Israel – including Air Canada, which resume its Tel Aviv route from Toronto in October.

Israel, in recent years, has attracted a specific type of clientele. As PAX previously reported, the VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) market has ramped up, while other travellers saw an opportunity to volunteer with relief efforts in the region.

Canadian tourist arrivals have a long way to go, but it’s a market with strong potential.  

Arrivals to Israel from Canada in 2019 sat at roughly 100,000, and in 2023, before the war broke out, and without the weight of COVID restrictions, Canadian traffic was trending just below that mark, sitting at 90 per cent of 2019’s figures. Even with fewer direct flights.

In a statement issued yesterday, Director-General of the Ministry of Tourism, Michael Izhakov, said “We had to do intense work in crisis management while promoting structural solutions for the future of tourism in Israel.”

“As expected during a time of war, we invested in strengthening tourism infrastructure, entrepreneurship, planning, and maintaining the Ministry’s marketing channels abroad. We continue to collaborate with the industry, with a responsibility for economic growth, employment in the periphery, and restoring confidence in the international market.”

Survey findings

A survey conducted by the Ministry among thousands of tourists in the first half of 2025 shows changes in the identity of visitors and the characteristics of their visits, following the war.

According to the results, 51% of tourists defined themselves as Jewish (compared to 66% in the 2024 survey), while the percentage of pilgrims increased from 5% in 2024 to 9% in the first half of 2025.

The average expenditure of an individual tourist increased to $1,622, compared to $1,427 in 2024 (excluding flights), and the length of stay was 9.3 nights, compared to 11.4 last year, the survey shows.

The main reasons for visiting were visiting relatives and friends (45%, unchanged from last year), business (12% compared to 9% last year), and leisure (14%, similar to last year).

Satisfaction with the visit was particularly high – 88% expressed high satisfaction, and 83% stated they would recommend Israel as a destination.

The Ministry, meanwhile, has approved a budget of about $55,172,337 (USD), including a budget reallocated from previous years, for dozens of public tourism infrastructure projects submitted by local authorities for construction in their areas.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.