Israel saw a record number of tourists in 2018 from Muslim countries, including ones with which it has no formal relations, according to the Population and Immigration Authority in the Interior Ministry.
Some 72,109 citizens from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco, Malaysia, Algeria, Indonesia, Oman, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates visited the Jewish state last year – a 15% increase from 2017.
In 2018, 4,947 Egyptians and 12,363 Jordanians visited Israel, along with 54,799 citizens of the other countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
There were 37,555 Indonesians who traveled to Israel, a 5% increase from 2017.
These figures come as Israel has sought to improve relations with some of the aforementioned countries, including Oman, and where a once significant Jewish population thrived, as in Morocco.
This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
