Israel Records 152,400 Visitor Entries in October Amid Tourism Recovery
Israel registered 152,400 visitor entries in October, alongside a notable surge in expatriate Israelis returning to vote in the October 27 Knesset elections, according to CBS data.
Israel recorded 152,400 visitor entries in October, comprising 150,100 tourists and 2,300 day visitors, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). For the first ten months of the year, from January to October, a total of 957,800 visitor entries were registered, compared to 1.07 million in the corresponding period last year.
The figures for the current year include the 40 days of the "Roaring Lion" war, during which virtually no visitor entries were recorded. A breakdown of the data indicates that 34.4% of visitor entries originated from the United States, 12.6% from France, 8.2% from the United Kingdom, and 4.8% from Russia.
Trend Reversal in Air Tourism
CBS analysts noted that seasonally adjusted data for air tourist arrivals over the past three months, from August to October 2026, show an average of 119,400 entries per month, up from 76.3 thousand entries per month in the preceding three-month period. The trend analysis similarly points to a shift, registering an average monthly increase of 2.3% between August and October, contrasting with an average monthly decline of 1.1% in the prior period.
Surge in Visits by Expatriate Israelis
An additional trend highlighted in the CBS report concerns Israeli expatriates returning for visits. In October, 87,200 entries of Israelis living abroad were recorded, compared to 52,300 entries in October 2025. This significant increase is largely attributed to expatriates returning to the country to vote in the Knesset elections held on October 27.
