• Even amidst a ceasefire and somewhat stability in Israel, majority of Europeans still do not want to visit Israel.
• Half of Europeans are also unlikely to visit Israel in the next 5 years.
A new study, presented yesterday at the Future of Inbound Tourism to Israel conference, reveals that almost three quarters of Europeans from major countries have expressed no interest in visiting Israel.
About half of respondents said they are unlikely to consider Israel as a tourist destination in the next 5 years.
Since October 7 2023, when the genocide in Gaza began, tourism took a steep dip for the initial few months.
When the Gaza genocide broke out in Oct. 2023, over 89,007 tourists visited Israel, a huge 73% decrease from the previous year’s 333,005 visitors.
In November, the number of tourists visiting Israel reached 38,003, down from 333,007 in November 2022, with a drop of 78.5%.
A total of 52,008 tourists visited Israel in December the same year, down from 266,002 tourists in Dec. 2022, indicating an 80% decline.
In 2023, approximately 3 million tourists visited Israel, down from 4.5 million in 2019.
In 2024 about 961,000 tourists visited Israel, a 68.1% drop since 2023.
Tourism accounts for about 3% of Israel’s economy and employs around 200,000 Israelis directly, according to the Tourism Ministry.
Trading Economics has predicted that tourism would reach about 95,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2025, still a huge low compared to pre-October 2023.
Israels image of stability in the Middle East has been ruptured
Israel portrayed itself as the only democracy in the middle east and therefore the only stable progressive force for the middle east.
As the genocide in Gaza went on, it was seen that the general Israeli consensus was that it supported the genocide along with the starvation of the Gaza population.
Even while losing support from an entire generation in much of the western world while having its economy pummeled for the financing of the genocide along with the decrease in tourism, it still pursued its ambitions even when US intelligence had claimed it would never truly be able to achieve victory.
Israel’s rogue absentmindedness in its genocide that was driven by Israeli supremacy over Arabs, has now left it at a potential permanent limbo in its tourism gains from Europe.
From being once seen as a bastion of stability to now being portrayed like the war-ravaged nations that surround it, it could take years for Israel to reach it’s pre 2023 levels of tourism under the notion it is even able avoid any more wars.
