Turkey has been eliminated as a vacation destination for the Israeli traveller and has been replaced by a clear preference for the Greek islands although this trend is expected to change as in view of efforts by Turkish travel agencies to bring Israeli tourists back to that country.

Since the prices in Greece have gone up this year and searching for an alternative to Turkey, Cyprus this summer is a destination embraced by Israelis.

This July saw Cyprus boast a 77% increase in the number of Israeli travellers to the island, in comparison with July 2016.

Another factor is that tourism providers and airlines are conducting direct flights from Israel to Cyprus, including El Al Israel Airlines, Arkia, Israir, Aegean Airlines, Blue Air, Cobalt and Tus Airways, which posted 322% growth in the number of its passengers in July, reaching a total of over 14,000.

The airlines offer direct flights from Haifa taking 40 minutes and direct flights from Ben Gurion Airport, mostly to Larnaca.

HotelCombined’s search figures (76%) show that Israeli tourists prefer vacationing in areas controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus.

Kyrenia attracts 14% of the searches, and the rest of the searches are divided among small towns.

Source: InCyprus