The year 2019 saw a record high in the number of trips Israelis made outside the country – 9,172,600, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics released Monday shows.
According to the CBS, in 2018 Israelis made 8,472,700 trips abroad, which means that 2019 saw an increase of over 705,000 journeys outside the country by Israeli citizens. The number of Israelis traveling abroad has doubled since 2010, with each year (with the exception of 2012) seeing Israelis making an increasing number of trips abroad.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The CBS travel statistics for Israelis included a new figure – the number of Israelis living abroad who visited their native land, which in 2019 reached 182,000. The CBS attributes the jump in the number of Israelis abroad who traveled to Israel last year to the two Knesset elections held in 2019. The return trips of the Israelis who live abroad were included in the Israeli departure statistics.
The vast majority of travelers departed from Ben-Gurion International Airport, with over 8.2 million Israelis flying abroad from the country's main airport.
However, some Israeli travelers preferred to leave the country by land, with 776,800 citizens crossing the eastern border into Jordan, from where they continued on to other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia. This number is also a record.
Just under 5 million Israelis went through the Taba border crossing into Sinai and Egypt, an increase of 118,300 compared to 2018. A total of 91,300 Israelis sailed abroad in 2019, roughly the same number as in 2018.
