Israel’s Ministry of Tourism reported that May, 2013 saw a record number of visitors to the Holy Land:
Israel set an all-time monthly record for tourism in May, with 336,000 visitors entering the country, a 5 percent increase over the previous May. From the start of January through the end of May, 1.4 million visitors entered Israel, a 1% increase over the same period in 2012.
“Tourism is an essential economic growth engine for the economy,” Tourism Minister Uzi Landau said.
The figures were announced in a week that has seen a series of international sports events held in Israel, underscoring the country’s enhanced position as a destination. They comes at the end of a week that saw a string of failures by activists seeking to promote cultural and economic boycotts of Israel.
Efforts by anti-Israel activists to dissuade European teams from attending the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship were universally unsuccessful, and the matches were held in front of overflowing crowds. Similar efforts to derail an international Formula 1 exhibition also failed, with approximately 70,000 tourists and residents gathered to watch more than half a dozen top international racing drivers take on the Jerusalem circuit.
Efforts to promote economic boycotts of Israel suffered similar setbacks this week. Israeli company Waze was purchased by Google for over a billion dollars, becoming the latest in a list of Israeli start-ups purchased by Silicon Valley giants.
Meanwhile Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution foreclosing moves to boycott or divest from Israel, and committing the city to awarding contracts without considering issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The vote comes nine months after activists from the so-called BDS movement – which seeks to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel – attempted to block the city from awarding a bus contract to a French company with business holdings in the West Bank. The council’s decision is likely the first of its kind to be adopted by a major American city.
[Photo: 1yen / Flickr]