Tourism direct GVA (2023) | Tourism direct employment (2023) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
1.9% of total GVA (0.1 percentage points since 2022) | 3.3% of total employment (up 0.1 percentage points since 2022) | 2.7% of total service exports (down 3.7 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: 2030 Strategic Plan
National tourism administration: Ministry of Tourism
National tourism budget: ILS 522 million (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Developing human capital for tourism – Strengthening tourism education at the high school level through internships to cultivate early interest and expertise in sustainable and accessible tourism.
Advancing data-driven decision making and strategic capacity – Establishing unified national tourism data infrastructure to make data more accessible while drawing on improved surveys and bank transactions data to improve data.
Increasing tourism volume and revenue – Multiple measures have been put in place to expand new and existing markets, target faith-based tourists and boost domestic tourism.
The tourism sector has been severely affected by the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023, with an almost complete halt in inbound tourism during the first months of the war and a significant decline in hotel revenues and employment.
Domestic tourism remains a key stabilising factor for the sector, providing economic resilience during downturns. In 2023, 6.6 million domestic tourist trips were undertaken at commercial establishments, below the level of 8.2 million in 2019. There were 23.8 million domestic bednights in 2024, an increase of 37% compared to 2019.
Forecasts indicate that under a moderate growth scenario, inbound tourism could reach 7 million visitors by 2030, generating significant gains in employment, investment, and foreign exchange earnings. Under current airport capacity, the maximum number of inbound tourists is estimated at around 6 million per year by 2026–2027.
The Ministry of Tourism is the national government entity responsible for steering tourism policy and the sector. The Ministry continuously engages with all parts of the tourism sector, with particular emphasis on emergency support programmes for hotels and inbound tour operators and preparing SMEs for the recovery of domestic and inbound tourism. The Ministry co-operates with other relevant ministries, authorities, and agencies on an ad-hoc basis and within the framework of joint steering committees.
Major municipalities, or regional authorities of tourism with significant administrative capacity, financial resources, and independent tourism departments (such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv–Yafo, Eilat, or Haifa), usually co-ordinate tourism policies and marketing activity with those at the national level. Smaller, mainly rural authorities, tend to cluster into regional tourism DMOs to develop more coherent products and enable more effective branding and marketing opportunities. The Ministry has a close working relationship with regional DMOs and tourism departments, and co-ordinates marketing, product development and regional branding.
The Ministry also assists local authorities in tourism development research and feasibility studies, especially for infrastructure development and zoning. The Ministry organises professional coaching and training programmes in product development and marketing for SMEs, with the active participation of regional DMOs.
For 2025, the State Budget allocated approximately ILS 522 million to the tourism sector, including around ILS 130 million for public tourism infrastructure development.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Ministry of Tourism, 2026.
The Ministry of Tourism’s 2030 Strategic Plan outlines clear goals, targets, metrics, key challenges, and the main actions required to achieve them. At the heart of the strategy is a customer-centric approach, focusing on both domestic and inbound tourists, and enhancing the way the government and tourism sector interact with visitors.
A key priority under the Strategic Plan is to increase tourism volume and revenue by expanding international visitors in new and existing markets, boosting domestic tourism and targeting faith-based tourists, while seeking to maximise the economic impact of these visitors. The Strategic Plan identifies enhancing tourism accessibility for all, including persons with disabilities and elderly travellers, as a particular opportunity. This involves adapting sites and services to meet accessibility standards, including public transport, accommodations, and tourist attractions.
Two programmes are now available to support more accessible infrastructure in Israel. The Accessibility Budgeting Procedures for Tourist Sites 2024-2025 allocates ILS 20 million to improve accessibility in previously funded tourist sites. It supports upgrades such as accessible paths, signage, and facilities, as part of the Ministry’s policy to promote “Accessible Tourism”. The second programme, Public Tourism Infrastructure Development Procedure 2025 (ILS 130 million), is designed to help develop diverse, competitive and sustainable tourist products by supporting new tourism infrastructure. Projects will be considered based on their integration with the environment, protection of natural resources, and accessibility, while addressing social and cultural aspects that affect the community in the development area.
Other initiatives support diverse and sustainable tourism in Israel, with a focus on protecting and promoting cultural heritage, assessing the environmental impact of tourism development as part of the project planning process, spreading the benefits of tourism geographically, and encouraging domestic tourism to reduce reliance on international travel fluctuations.
Israel is actively working to improve the visitor experience, from arrival to departure. The goal is to ensure that visitors feel their journey was smooth, enjoyable, and represented good value for money. Key initiatives include improving service quality at key “touchpoints” in the tourist journey, boosting site maintenance and cleanliness, developing materials to make information more accessible, monitoring tourist satisfaction in real time and adjusting services accordingly, and removing outdated regulations to align with international standards.
Israel is actively supporting accommodation expansion and regional diversification. Since 2010, over 240 hotels have benefitted from various government grant programmes. Currently, a grant support provides up to 20% capital grants for new hotel construction or expansion projects across the country (excluding Tel Aviv and Herzliya). The budget for these incentives was ILS 180 million in 2025, with a similar allocation expected for 2026.
In response to the ongoing geopolitical situation in Israel, the Government has implemented targeted financial support and recovery measures, including grants, soft loans, and tax relief for tourism enterprises, particularly in hospitality and travel services. While inbound tourism is expected to recover gradually, domestic tourism continues to provide resilience, and the Ministry’s 2030 Strategy remains focused on sustainable growth and diversification.
An intelligent and resilient foundation for developing long-term tourism policy relies on advancing data-driven decision making and strategic capacity. Israel is now embedding data into decision making, aligning strategic priorities across departments, and working to ensure organisational readiness in times of crisis. This involves:
Establishing a unified national tourism data infrastructure and a strategic roadmap to guide investment, marketing, and planning decisions.
Conducting market research and analytics, including the 2025 Inbound Tourism Survey and reports on tourist credit card spending to assess economic impact.
Driving innovation and regulatory streamlining, including the rollout of digital platforms to simplify internal workflows, reduce bureaucratic barriers for investors, and accelerate approval processes across planning and tourism development.
Strengthening Israel’s international positioning through bilateral tourism agreements and participation in global tourism projects.
Improving crisis preparedness, with a national emergency operations manual for the tourism sector and readiness assessments in key municipalities.
A thriving tourism sector depends not only on hotels and attractions, but on the people who deliver the experience. To develop human capital across the tourism ecosystem, Israel is investing in professional development, workforce expansion, and long-term education opportunities. To improve the skills and quality of the workforce, training and licensing programs are being expanded for tourism professionals. Updated curricula and certifications are being launched to reflect evolving industry standards and national strategic needs. Tourism education is also being promoted in both high schools and academia, to cultivate early engagement with tourism as a career path and to embed service excellence, multilingual capabilities, and cultural fluency in future professionals. The Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, leads these programmes which currently offer three specialised tracks: hotel management, tourism management, and digital tourism. In alignment with the goal of fostering digitalisation, innovation, and entrepreneurship to transform tourism, the digital tourism track emphasises the integration of AI and direct collaborations with Israeli startups, providing students with practical exposure to the latest advancements in travel-tech. Schools collaborate with local tourism businesses to offer internships and hands-on projects, bridging classroom learning with real-world applications. These partnerships foster skills relevant to green tourism, digitalisation, and inclusive service provision. Critical labour shortages, particularly in the hotel sector, are being addressed by reallocating and utilising foreign worker quotas through bilateral agreements.
Israel has identified optimising public investment in tourism infrastructure to maximise economic and social returns as a key priority. Public tourism assets such as visitor centres, parks, and accessibility upgrades require substantial funding, with the Ministry investing approximately ILS 150 million annually to develop public tourism infrastructure, in collaboration with local authorities. Previously there was limited data on the cost-effectiveness and economic impact of these investments, hindering evidence-based decision making and efficient allocation of resources.
To better understand the impact of public tourism infrastructure, Israel developed models to define indicators and measure the impact of investment in different types of tourism infrastructure. The Economic Effectiveness Research Program evaluates the return on investment of existing and planned public infrastructure projects, assessing the expected impact on tourist spending, job creation, regional development, and social inclusion. The methodology combines quantitative data including visitor numbers, revenue growth, employment figures, with qualitative assessments like visitor satisfaction and accessibility improvements. The research outputs directly inform infrastructure planning and budget prioritisation, ensuring funds target projects with highest economic and social benefits.
Social benefits such as improved accessibility, community engagement, and equitable regional development are integrated within the model as key indicators. In addition, Israel’s model enables the prioritisation of specific tourism regions, such as the North or the South, and allocates financial, logistical, infrastructural, and social resources accordingly, to promote balanced regional growth and inclusiveness.