This has been a good tourism year for Israel, with a strong increase in inbound visitor numbers.

The state saw approximately 13 percent more international entries in 2018 than 2017, a 38-percent increase over 2016. Notably, 40 percent of this year's tourists had visited Israel before.

“I am excited to welcome next week Israel’s four millionth tourist in 2018,” Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin told local newspaper The Jerusalem Post. “This represents the unprecedented success of the Tourism Ministry, which invests in marketing Israel around the world. This includes the latest agreement signed with the Philippine Minister of Labor to increase the quota of up to 1,000 foreign workers in the hotel sector.”