Israel has enjoyed a boom in tourism over the past 12 months and leaders of the industry are confident they can repeat the success and do even better in the year ahead.
They told a press conference here today that a record 865,000 tourists visited Israel in the period January-July, 1985, a 19 percent increase over the same period last year. In the last 12 months, 1.5 million tourists came, representing $1.5 billion in revenues.
Rafi Farber, Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, said Israel could increase its tourist business without investing in a larger infrastructure. He pointed out that there are now some 30,000 hotel rooms in the country which can accommodate more than two million tourists a year. This means Israel can absorb an additional 600,000 visitors without building more hotels.
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