Israel drops in tourism rankings due to high prices and security concerns
Propping up the bottom of the list were Chad, Guinea, Angola, Yemen and Mauritania. "With its unique cultural history and religious significance, Israel is at the crossroads of three continents and has a number of World Heritage cultural sites (26th,) according to the report. "The country performs well on ICT readiness (32nd), and on the Human Resources and the Labour Market pillar (39th), with especially good rankings on the Ease of finding skilled employees indicator (17th).
"Infrastructure is mostly well developed, yet more investments are needed in tourism infrastructure (72nd). Similar to other countries in the region, Israel’s tourism is affected by concerns about safety and security (99th), terrorism (130st) and instability from conflict. "Other areas for improvement include low price competitiveness (136th) and political will to address environmental sustainability (101st)—T&T is not being developed with particular attention to the environment (110th) and there is low international commitment on environmental agreement (128th)."
The Tourism Ministry noted in its response to the report that it has increased its marketing budget to promote Israel and is planning to introduce new airline routes. "We are working and investing in new target audiences in niche markets such as sports tourism, music and birding and we are convinced that this will bring positive results in the near future," the ministry said in a statement. "The Tourism Ministry works in ongoing collaboration with other relevant government ministries, for example with the Transportation Ministry to improve public transport in order to enhance the tourist experience."