Record Israeli Travel Abroad Drains Billions from Economy

In 2025, Israel experienced an unprecedented surge in citizens traveling abroad, coupled with a severe downturn in inbound tourism, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Israelis made 9.4 million trips overseas, a 33% increase from the previous year. Concurrently, the country hosted only about 1.3 million tourists and day visitors, a figure that, despite a 37.1% rise from the crisis-affected 2024, remains significantly below pre-war levels.

This imbalance has widened the financial gap between outbound spending and inbound tourism revenue. Israeli expenditures on domestic and international travel reached 46.3 billion shekels in 2025, up from 38.3 billion shekels in 2024. In contrast, foreign tourists spent 12.1 billion shekels in Israel, an increase from 9.2 billion shekels the prior year.

The hotel industry is struggling with a shortage of international guests. Total overnight stays in tourist hotels fell to 21 million in 2025 from 22.5 million in 2024. This decline was driven by a drop in local tourist nights to 17.8 million, while foreign tourist nights increased to 3.1 million. With 437 hotels offering 57,800 rooms, the average occupancy rate was only 53% in 2025, generating 13.7 billion shekels in total revenue.

Despite the decrease in overnight stays, the tourism sector still contributed approximately 1.7% to the GDP and provided employment for 3.2% of the workforce.