Two recent publications by the Central Bureau of Statistics cast light on the state of the hotel industry in Israel, and on the appetite of Israel’s for overseas vacations. The first presents unambiguous data: 1.3 million Israelis traveled abroad from Israel in July (1.15 million of them by air). This is the highest monthly figure since the beginning of the war. Last July, the number was 1.1 million, which was the second highest since the beginning of the war.
The second publication, a survey of business trends, presents a somewhat complicated picture of the Israeli hotel industry. The survey is analyzed as a net balance, that is the weighted difference between the percentage of managers who assessed the state of their companies positively versus those whose assessments were negative. In response to the question "What in your view is the business/financial state of the company today?" the weighted score for the hotel industry is minus 18%. Although this represents an improvement in comparison with previous months - in March the score was minus 46% and in June it was minus 20% - sentiment in the industry clearly remains negative.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the summer and the desire of Israel’s to spend time on vacation has brought a change: in July, for the first time since November 2025, the number of hotel overnights by Israelis was higher than in the corresponding month of the previous year, by 6.2%. The number of tourist overnights was sharply down, however, by 42.9%. The number of people employed in the industry was down by 2.2%, and company proceeds were down by 6.4%.
The strong shekel and suppressed demand
Unless there are surprises, the number of Israelis going abroad in August can be expected to break records. Ofer Klein, head of the Economics and Research Department at Harel Insurance and Finance explains that the factors behind this are the strong shekel and suppressed demand - the desire of Israelis to fly overseas that had to be deferred because of the war. To a large extent, the figures compensate for previous months.
At the same time, the foreign airlines that have started to return to Israel have raised supply. Swiss, Condor, and Brussels Airlines are expected to be joined by KLM, Delta, and United.
Taking a broader view, in the period January-July 2026 there were 4.67 million exits from the country by Israelis compared with 4.88 million in the corresponding period of 2025. The decline is of course attributable to Operation Roaring Lion against Iran in February-March this year.
Klein sums up the situation by saying, "The gap between the rapid return of Israelis to flying overseas and the slow recovery of incoming tourism remains one of the most prominent characteristics of the tourism industry."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 13, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
