Israel Bets NIS 10 Million on Getting Israelis to Tour at Home

Israel's Ministry of Tourism has launched a 10 million shekel ($2.98 million) programme, the first of its kind, to persuade Israelis to travel inside their own country. Israeli Tourism Month will bundle subsidised guided tours, hotel benefits and attraction entry into a single month-long calendar, the ministry said.

The plan is for a recurring national anchor event: a series of cultural, tourism, entertainment and leisure activities staged in four locations from the north of the country to the south, at what the ministry called a symbolic public price of 18 shekels ($5.35) per activity. It is expected to begin shortly after the autumn Jewish holidays, and the ministry said it intends to make it an annual fixture that shores up the tourism industry in the troughs between periods of peak demand.

The hole the programme is meant to fill

Israel's inbound tourism has not come back. The country received about 1.3 million foreign visitors in 2025 (against 3.01 million in 2023 and a record 4.55 million in 2019), according to Tourism Ministry data reported by PAX. Hotels absorbed the shortfall: national occupancy averaged 50% in the first half of 2025, down from 62% in 2024 and 63% in 2023, on Hotel Association figures reported by Calcalist, with pilgrimage and tour-group towns such as Jerusalem, Tiberias and Nazareth hit hardest.

Domestic travellers have been the industry's only reliable customers through that period. The hospitality consultancy HVS found that Israelis substantially increased their contribution to tourism in 2024 and 2025, with many hotels prioritising domestic guests over foreign ones to fill summer rooms, a reversal of the pre-war economics, in which foreign visitors paid the premium rates.

What 10 million shekels is, and is not

Set against the sector's problem, the sum is modest: a marketing and subsidy budget rather than a rescue package. For comparison, the ministry allocated roughly $55 million to public tourism infrastructure projects submitted by local authorities, PAX reported. The 18-shekel ticket is meant to remove price as a reason not to go rather than to cover the cost of the activity.

What the ministry wants it to become

The ministry framed the month as a permanent fixture rather than a one-off promotion, saying it would connect the Israeli public to the country's landscapes, culture and history and would be repeated annually to support the industry between periods of peak demand. The off-peak timing is the ministry's own stated reason for the exercise. Its wider expectation for the sector rests on foreign visitors returning: Tourism Minister Haim Katz said that with travel warnings reduced and more flights available, 2026 was expected to be a year of recovery, PAX reported, citing survey findings that 88% of those who did come in 2025 were highly satisfied with the visit.

What the announcement did not say

The ministry named none of the four locations, gave no start date beyond “shortly after the Jewish holidays”, and published no list of participating operators, hotels or attractions. It set no target for participation or for revenue, and did not explain how the gap between the 18-shekel price and the real cost of a guided tour is covered, or by whom.