War in Lebanon cost Israel's tourist industry 500,000 visitors

Everyone agrees that the war in Lebanon ended without significant harm to the Israeli economy. But in the tourism sector, things look very different: It was the sector worst hit by Israel's the summer's fighting.

Some 1.7 million visitors entering Israel were recorded between January 1 and November 30. Adding an estimate for December based on the same month last year, the number of tourists visiting Israel in 2006 totals only 1.86 million, down from 1.9 million in 2005. This is far lower than the pre-war forecast for 2006 of 2.4-2.5 million tourists.

According to calculations by the Tourism Ministry and the industry, every 100,000 tourists yield $200 million to the state coffers and create 4,000 jobs. Based on these figures, the loss of more than half a million tourists cost the state $1 billion and 20,000 jobs.

November this year showed a decrease in incoming tourists, to 117,000, compared to 164,000 in November 2005. The plunge in entries recorded over the past few months, beginning in July, is a repercussion of the war in the north.

According to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Tourism Ministry, the first half of the year saw a 22 percent increase in tourism compared to the same period last year. But the aggregate figures for the full year show a 3 percent drop in tourism compared to 2005.

The number of visitors who entered by air in November declined 29 percent, and by land, the decrease was 25 percent. Of November's entries by air, 97,000 came through Ben-Gurion Airport - a 27 percent drop from the same month last year - while 3,200 were via direct flights to Eilat.