Summer tourism to Israel is on the rise again, Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data released Wednesday reveals, despite a significant drop following Operation Protective Edge in July-August 2014.
213,000 tourists came by air in August 2015, 45% more than in August 2014 and the same as August 2013.
Of those, 20,000 tourist entries were registered through the border crossings, with 16,000 coming through the border with Jordan and 4,000 from Egypt - 19% more than August 2014 and 30% less than August 2013.
Meanwhile, international air tourism continues to recover. 1.69 million tourists entered Israel through Ben-Gurion airport between January-August 2015, only 4% less than the same period in 2014 and 2% less than in 2013.
"The recovery trend after Operation Protective Edge continues apace," Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) stated following the report. "I am pleased to see that the statistics show an increase of over 40% on 2014 and an almost complete return to the 2013 numbers."
"With the increase in the marketing budget, I have given the go-ahead to aggressive and focused marketing campaigns for the winter season on order to secure this welcome upward trend," he added. "I am convinced that, with hard work, we can see an increase in incoming tourism to Israel."
Wednesday's report is a marked reversal from data from the first half of 2015, claiming that tourism had dropped 25% compared to the first half of 2014.