JERUSALEM, Dec 6 (Reuters) -
Tourism to Israel suffered steep declines for a second straight month in November in the wake of Israel's war against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, official data showed on Wednesday.
Visitors to Israel slid to 39,000 last month versus 99,000 in October and 370,000 in November 2022. Prior to the war, that began on Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns, monthly tourism numbers were typically above 300,000.
Over the first 11 months of the year, there were 3.19 million visitors, up from 2.57 million a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
Since the start of the war, demand for travel to Israel has dropped and most foreign airlines have suspended flights, leaving Israeli carriers El Al Airlines, Arkia and Israir and a small number of others flying to and from Tel Aviv.
At the same time, the number of Israelis travelling abroad in November dropped to 149,000 from 645,000 a year ago. In January to November, 8.8 million Israelis travelled abroad, versus 7.7 million in the same period in 2022.
The conflict has harmed Israel's economy, with the jobless rate jumping to around 10% from 3.5%. Some 10-15% of the workforce has also been called into military reserve service. (Reporting by Steven Scheer, Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)
