ISRAEL OUTBOUND TOURISM
MARKET RESEARCH REPORTS
BY DR. ERAN KETTER

Israel is a key outbound travel source market in the EMEA region, playing a significant role for tourism destinations across Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. As of 2025, Israel’s outbound tourism demonstrates a high level of resilience, showing a strong recovery following the Gaza war, while inbound tourism to Israel continues to lag behind.

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Israel tourism statistics for 2024 and 2025

• In 2024, Israeli travelers undertook 7 million international trips—only 32% below outbound tourism volumes recorded in 2023, the pre-war benchmark. These figures are particularly noteworthy given that throughout 2024 Israel was engaged in active conflict with Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, air connectivity was constrained, and a significant share of the population was mobilized for military service.

• In 2025, Israeli outbound tourism rebounded strongly, with over 9 million international trips recorded—surpassing 2019 levels, the pre-COVID and pre-war benchmark year. Between January and November 2025 alone, Israeli travelers made more than 8.5 million outbound trips, representing a 32% increase compared to 2024 and standing just 2% below pre-war travel volumes in 2023. This rapid recovery highlights the exceptional resilience of Israel’s outbound tourism market, which is likely to reach new record levels in 2026.

• The top five destinations for flights to and from Tel Aviv (TLV) between January and October 2025 were Greece, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, and Italy. The geography of Israeli outbound travel has shifted markedly during the war period. Destinations recording the highest growth in Israeli outbound travel in 2025 include the UAE (+80%), Hungary (+55%), Italy (+49%), Poland (+43%), Bulgaria (+40%), and Georgia (+30%). This represents a significant departure from pre-war travel patterns, reflecting changes in traveler preferences, aviation capacity, route availability, and broader geopolitical and economic considerations.

• As a result of widespread airline flight cancellations to Israel during the war, the market share of Israeli carriers at TLV increased sharply—from 35% in 2023 to 62% between January and August 2025. During this period, the top five airlines operating flights to and from Israel were El Al, Israir, Arkia, Wizz Air, and Blue Bird Airways.

• Inbound tourism to Israel has also begun to recover, albeit at a slower pace. In 2025, Israel hosted more than 1.3 million inbound tourists—an increase of over 30% compared to 2024, when only 970,000 inbound travelers were recorded. While inbound tourism was severely affected by the ongoing conflict, current data indicate a gradual recovery trajectory, driven primarily by strong pent-up demand, particularly for VFR (visiting friends and relatives) and pilgrimage travel.

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Israel: A key regional source market

In recent years, Israel has emerged as a key outbound travel market for a wide range of destinations and is widely regarded as one of the top three non-European source markets for tourism to Europe. In 2025, Israeli travelers made over 9 million outbound trips, and outbound tourism from Israel is expected to break previous records in 2026. Owing to Israel’s geographic location, air travel accounts for more than 90% of outbound trips, making direct air connectivity a critical determinant of destination choice for Israeli travelers. Additional key drivers shaping Israeli outbound travel decisions include the quality and diversity of the tourism offer, value for money, and the presence of a welcoming and supportive environment for travelers from Israel.

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Israel tourism recovery from the Gaza war

Despite the negative impact of the Gaza war (Swords of Iron) on outbound travel from Israel, the outbound market has demonstrated a strong recovery, with 2025 tourism volumes broadly in line with pre-war performance. Looking ahead to 2026, several key trends are shaping Israeli outbound travel, including a growing demand for emotional wellness and stress-relief experiences (“soft travel”), sustained interest in family-oriented sun and beach holidays, "revenge travel" short escapes, and a renewed preference for short- and medium-haul destinations that are perceived as welcoming to travelers from Israel.

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Market research report on Israel outbound tourism

What are the key characteristics of Israel’s outbound travel market? How can a tourism destination (DMO)/ National Tourism Board (NTO) / hotel effectively attract tourists from Israel? Which travel segments in Israel are the most open to explore new destinations? What are the key tourism decision making factors for Israeli travelers? And which marketing communication channels are the most effective when targeting travelers from Israel?

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Our team of experts is offering tourism market research reports on Israel outbound travel market, Israel outbound tourism trends, Israel tourism statistics, Israel tourism demographics and travel segments, consumer behavior of Israel outbound tourists, Israel outbound tourism consumer preferences, tourism demand analysis, and analysis of the travel and tourism industry in Israel and its economic performance. The tourism market research reports can cover Israel outbound travel market as a whole, or focus on a specific market segment, activity or travel passion.

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Market research methodologies to analyze Israel outbound tourism

Our market research work on outbound tourism from Israel is based on:

• Israeli outbound travel trends analysis

• Analysis of market data, tourism statistics and aviation statistics

• Social media sentiment analysis/ social media listening (in Hebrew/ Arabic/ English)

• In-depth interviews with tourism stakeholders

• Focus groups with Israeli outbound travelers

• Survey/ online panel of Israeli travelers

• Our team’s knowledge, experience and in-depth understating of the Israeli culture, tourism demand patterns of Israelis and consumer behavior factors of Israeli travelers.

 

Why conduct market research on Israel tourism with us?

Eran Ketter (PhD) is an acclaimed tourism advisor and researcher, and a former marketing advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. He is the author of numerous tourism strategy and market research reports, and since 2020 he is the Head of Research in a European Travel Commission market research serious on measuring Europeans’ travel sentiment, conducting surveys for over 120,000 Europeans and providing marketing recommendations and insights for 35 national tourism organizations around Europe (with Mindhaus). Dr. Ketter has a unique in-depth understanding of Israel’s travel and tourism market, based on his rich professional experience working with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, Jerusalem Tourism Development Corporation and numerous DMOs, tourism organizations, tourism entrepreneurs and travel-tech startups in Israel.

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