After nearly two years of war, Israel’s tourism industry is attempting a reset — not by chasing beachgoers or short-haul city breaks, but by leaning heavily on faith, familiarity, and loyal audiences abroad.
Government officials believe Christian pilgrims, Evangelical travelers, and Jewish communities overseas can form the backbone of a gradual recovery, even as broader tourism remains constrained.
That strategy was laid out this week at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) in Tel Aviv, where the Tourism Ministry announced a renewed marketing push aimed largely at North America. More than NIS 20 million ($6.5 million) has been allocated to a digital campaign intended to rebuild confidence and reintroduce Israel to audiences already inclined to visit.
“Uncertainty and travel warnings have impacted tourism activity, but with improvements in flight availability in 2026, there is reason for optimism that signs of recovery are already emerging,” Tourism Minister Haim Katz said at the opening of the exhibition.
He said the ministry would soon launch a new US-focused campaign titled “I AM ISRAEL,” tailored to “pro-Israel audiences, evangelicals, and Jewish communities,” alongside continued outreach in other major markets.
“Our goal is not only to return to previous levels, but to improve and break records,” Katz insisted.
The IMTM exhibition itself was framed as part of that confidence-building effort. Roughly 12,000 visitors were expected over the two-day event at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, which hosted more than 180 exhibitors from Israel and abroad.
Countries including Greece, China, Vietnam, Georgia, Canada, Slovakia, Hungary, Taiwan, and Azerbaijan set up national pavilions, while international journalists, social media influencers, and foreign officials circulated the exhibition halls.
Tourism Ministry Director: Recovery has begun
Tourism Ministry Director General Dani Shahar Izhakov said the recovery, while uneven, has begun at the margins. About 140,000 visitors have entered Israel so far this year, compared with around 63,000 during the same period in 2025. Still, he cautioned against expecting a rapid return to pre-war volumes.
Before the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, Israel had forecast a record 5.5 million visitors for that year, well above the 4.5 million recorded in 2019. Instead, arrivals fell to about 3 million in 2023, then dropped sharply in 2024, when fewer than 1 million tourists visited. In 2025, the number climbed modestly to roughly 1.3 million.
“We cautiously estimate that 2 million to 3 million tourists will visit Israel in 2026,” Izhakov said. “That would be a meaningful recovery, but it will take time to rebuild trust and demand.”
One of the clearest bets is on Christian pilgrimage. At IMTM, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke at the launch of HolyLandTravel.ai, an AI-driven travel planning platform designed specifically for faith-based visitors. Huckabee, an evangelical pastor who led more than 100 pilgrimage trips to Israel over several decades before becoming ambassador, argued that the current downturn masks substantial pent-up demand.
“I tell my friends back in the US, if you ever thought about coming to Israel, come right now,” Huckabee said. “Tourism is down so substantially because of the war and the tension, but the places I walk into — restaurants, hotels, biblical sites — there are no lines.”
Addressing safety concerns, he said, “The question I always get asked is whether it is safe. And I say, I feel completely at home and safe in Israel. There may be tension in various places, but we have that in the U.S. too.”
The ambassador added, “There are 80 million Evangelical Christians in America, and all of them would want to travel here. Once you’ve walked the land, you read the Bible differently for the rest of your life.”
HolyLandTravel.ai is a free interactive app that enables users to build customized pilgrimage itineraries based on dates, destinations, and budgets, and generates personalized podcasts and video tours guided by artificial intelligence, layered over Google Maps. Huckabee called it “one of the most practical tools I’ve ever seen for people planning a trip to the Holy Land.”
The United States remained Israel’s largest source market, sending roughly 400,000 visitors in 2025, followed by France with 159,000 and the United Kingdom with 95,000, according to Ministry figures.
By the end of 2025, grants totaling over NIS 180 million ($58.2 million) were approved for the construction of 2,050 new hotel rooms, while another NIS 174 million ($56.3 million) was allocated for public tourism infrastructure projects submitted by local authorities in 2026.
In early December, the Israel Planning Administration approved a construction permit for a new terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport featuring modern baggage-handling systems, check-in counters, offices, and unloading zones to handle growing passenger demand. The airport expects traffic to reach 22 million in 2026.