Israel sees 98.5% drop in foreign tourist arrivals

Tel Aviv, March 5 (IANS) The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a 98.5 per cent drop in foreign tourist arrivals to Israel during the first two months of 2021, according to data released by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics.According to the data released on Thursday, only 9,900 tourists visited Israel in the first two months this year, while the figure was 652,400 in the same period of 2020, reports Xinhua news agency. The pandemic broke out in the country in February 2020.The number of Israelis who went abroad in January and February of 2021 was only 46,000, dropping by 95.4 pe rcent from 995,200 in the same months of the previous year.On January 26 this year, the country imposed a ban on incoming and outgoing passenger flights to prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants.
--IANS ksk/