Tour Guide Netanyahu at Tower of David
Tour Guide Netanyahu at Tower of DavidKobi Gideon/GPO

Prime Minister Netanyahu surprised Ioana Isac from Romania, who became the 3 millionth tourist to visit the Jewish state this year, by serving as her tour guide in Jerusalem.

Isac and her partner, Mihai Georgescu, set a new record for tourists who visited Israel in a single year by becoming tourist numbers 3,000,000 and 3,000,001 when they stepped off their plane at Ben Gurion Airport Tuesday.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin welcomed the couple in the arrival hall in Ben Gurion Airport, and continued to accompany them until they reached the Tower of David museum in the Old City of Jerusalem, where they were surprised to find that their tour guide was none other than Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

During their vacation, they will enjoy an upgrade to a pampering hotel suite, a ride in a limousine, a helicopter tour in the skies of Israel, a unique Dead Sea experience, a sunset tour of the Tel Aviv promenade and a private dinner prepared by Israeli chef Nir Tzuk in his home.

In the period January – October 2017, 63,000 tourists arrived from Romania, compared to 40,100 in the same period in 2016 (increase of 57%) and 37,400 in 2015. The Romanian tourist stays an average of 7 nights in Israel. At the height of the season, there are 64 weekly flights between Romania and Israel, with most of them on the Bucharest-Tel Aviv route. There are also 15 weekly flights from Timisoara, Oradea, Craiova, Iasi and Cluj to Ben Gurion airport, with a new route from Bucharest to Ovdah airport in southern Israel beginning this month. The Tourism Ministry offers incentives to airlines opening new routes into Ben Gurion airport from destinations that have no direct flights to Israel. In addition, the ministry encourages tourism into Eilat by offering airlines a grant of 45 Euros per passenger landing in Ovdah during the winter.

Tourism Minister Levin said: “This is a special day and an historic milestone as we break the 3-million-tourist barrier and set a new all-time record. We are set to end the year with an amazing achievement, the likes of which have never been reached since the establishment of the State. I am excited to welcome the 3 millionth tourist today and I am happy with the achievements that we in the Tourism Ministry are seeing, as a result of the huge investment that we are making in marketing Israel around the world and our exceptional collaborations with airlines and the connections that we maintain and strengthen with tour operators. All these are bearing fruit and have added about 17 billion shekels and thousands of jobs to the local economy.”