CBS: record 309,000 tourists visited Israel in May

The figure is 33% higher than May of 2009, and 4% higher than May 2008, which was Israel's record year for tourism
 
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published last week figures showing that 309,000 tourists visited Israel in May 2010, an all-time record for that month.
 
The figure, according to the CBS, is 33% higher than May of 2009, and 4% higher than May 2008, which was Israel's record year for tourism.
 
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 1.4 million tourists have visited Israel, an increase of 42% compared with the corresponding period of 2009, and 11% higher than the corresponding period of 2008. Of these, 1.1 million remained in Israel for at leastone night an increase of 5% over 2008.
 
Due to the continued monthly growth in incoming tourism to Israel, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov noted that Israel has to continue building more hotel rooms and tourist attractions.
 
Tourism Minister noted that: "In accordance with the Tourism Ministry's three-year plan, an additional million tourists will have visited Israel in 2012, in total four million tourists and business people. We must be ready to offer them an attractive tourism solution... Competition with other countries in the region will intensify significantly in the coming months and years and, in order to compete, the ministry will allocate a significant portion of its budget to helping entrepreneurs." He added that, the ministry will allocate a half-billion shekels to assist in hotel projects, which will lead to the construction of thousands of hotel rooms that will contribute hundreds of millions of shekels and thousands of jobs to the economy”.
 
As part of this policy, the Tourism Ministry's Investment Administration approved on Tuesday grants worth 65 million shekels to five hotel projects in Jerusalem and the Galilee. The five are the Waldorf Astoria and a boutique hotel in Ein Kerem, both in Jerusalem, and HaGoshrim Hotel, Ein Hahula, and Prima Tiberias in the Galilee.