Turkey and the United States were found to be the most popular travel destinations for Israelis who went abroad in recent months, research conducted by Pelephone found. Among Israelis going abroad, some 15% travelled to these destinations during the months of March and April 2021, according to the research which examined the impact that COVID-19 has had on Israeli travel and tourism.
The third most popular tourism destination was the United Arab Emirates, with 8% of tourists travelling to the destination that was not even an option for Israelis a year ago before the Abraham Accords.
Other countries which benefitted from an increase in Israeli tourism were Ukraine Georgia.
At the start of 2020, Ukraine was the 12th most poplar country for Israelis to visit, but just 12 months later they have seen an increase of 177% and are now in fourth place. Georgia has seen an even larger increase of over 300%, moving from 18th place to fifth.
The location which has seen the largest proportional increase in Israeli tourism are the Seychelles islands which, with only 2% of all Israeli tourists in March-April 2021, saw an increase of 1,170%, moving to 14th place from 62nd.
The report revealed less optimistic data for several European countries. France dropped from fifth to seventh place in a 9% decrease of Israeli tourists and Greece, Israel's neighbor and known popular travel destination, dropped to ninth place.
But the most dramatic loss reported came from the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, with almost 56% fewer Israelis entering the country in March 2021 than they did in March 2020.