Ministry of Tourism (Israel)

The Ministry of Tourism treats tourism development as an economic responsibility, combining support for tourism enterprises with policies intended to increase visits to Israel and travel within the country.[5] Its stated goals include contributing to GDP and the balance of payments, increasing investment in tourism, and supporting employment.[1] Overseas marketing focuses on countries and population sectors considered to have potential to generate incoming tourism, while domestic policy also seeks to increase travel by Israelis.[5]

The ministry’s work encompasses accommodation, public tourism infrastructure, visitor services, professional training, marketing, and investment encouragement.[5] Its public-facing services include a virtual tourist office, a tourism-services complaints channel, tour-guide licensing, registration for international tourism fairs and seminars, and preliminary investment applications for hotels, hostels, and attractions.[6] Entrepreneurs can also obtain assistance through a tourism training and advice center.[6]

The ministry’s Hebrew government page lists six administrative units: Planning, Policy and Strategy; Planning, Development and Infrastructure; Administration and Human Resources; Tourist Experience; Economics and Investments; and Marketing.[7] A May 2026 ministry policy paper identifies Haim Katz as minister and Michael Izhakov as director general.[1] The government page also lists an announcement allocating approximately NIS 174 million to 58 tourism projects across Israel.[7]

The Ministry of Tourism was established in 1965.[3] National tourism planning developed gradually after its creation: the ministry commissioned surveys and policy documents and attempted to produce a national master plan, but the first comprehensive professional national tourism master plan was prepared in 1975.[3] A historical cabinet arrangement placed the justice and tourism portfolios under one minister until November 1988.[8]

After the June 1967 war, the ministry worked to restart tourism in Jerusalem, pursuing both economic recovery and the objective of demonstrating Israel’s ability to guarantee access to holy places and govern the unified city.[3] It temporarily licensed 50 Arab travel agents operating in East Jerusalem and nearby areas.[3] These agents were not incorporated into Israeli associations and soon opposed efforts to integrate their activities into the Israeli economy and administration.[3]

At that time, East Jerusalem and its surroundings contained 34 hotels with approximately 1,800 rooms and about 20 hostels for Christian pilgrims, compared with approximately 1,200 hotel rooms on the Israeli side.[3] The ministry issued temporary hotel quality ratings valid for six months, published new Jerusalem touring routes, trained guides, and licensed Arab guides who had worked on the Jordanian-held side of the city.[3] East Jerusalem soon received Tourism Development Area A status, offering substantial benefits to investors in hotels and tourist sites.[3]

The ministry’s institutional responsibilities also changed over time.[9] Following the dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in March 2004 and the reassignment of its 300 employees, a 2006 description of the administrative arrangements assigned protection and maintenance of all holy sites to the Tourism Ministry, while non-Jewish religious affairs fell under the Ministry of the Interior.[9] By 2021, the stated division assigned selected non-Jewish religious sites to the Tourism Ministry and selected Jewish sites to the Ministry of Religious Services.[10]

A 2007 statement of the ministry’s objectives included planning, developing, and preserving tourism infrastructure; overseas marketing; domestic tourism; training; investment encouragement; and rural tourism.[5] It also included promoting a permanent solution for protecting the Dead Sea shore and supporting tourism businesses through grants under the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law of 1990 and investment-center procedures.[5]

The Marketing Administration develops policies to encourage incoming and domestic tourism.[11] Its listed units include the Overseas Department; the Marketing Development, Fairs and Electronic Marketing Department; the Hosting and Public Relations Department; and the Internal Tourism Department.[11] The Overseas Department coordinates marketing in foreign markets through ministry representatives around the world.[11]

The ministry’s overseas activities distinguish between identifying markets and cultivating commercial relationships, on the one hand, and publicity aimed at encouraging visits, on the other.[4] Marketing relationships include travel agents, airlines, and Jewish and Christian organizations, while promotion uses public relations, publicity, and advertising.[4] Promotional work has also included media relations in Israel and abroad, fact-finding visits for journalists and other influential visitors, international distribution of articles about Israeli tourism, and an information center supplying material in Hebrew and other languages.[4]

In 2009, the ministry operated 15 tourism offices abroad, including six in the Americas.[12] Their activities included hosting opinion leaders in Israel, organizing tourism conferences, attending fairs, cooperating with airlines and travel organizers, and identifying potential tourism investors.[12] These numbers describe the overseas network in 2009 rather than its present size.[12]

The Department of International Relations handles tourism-related relations with foreign countries and the European Union.[13] It represents the ministry in tourism-related international organizations, including the World Tourism Organization and the Tourism Committee, and cooperates with relevant OECD bodies, with the stated aim of strengthening Israel’s positive image.[13] Domestic tourism work, meanwhile, includes cooperation with local associations and efforts to develop travel opportunities for different sectors of the population.[4]

The Tourism Experience Administration supervises tourism-service quality through inspections and complaint handling.[14] Its inspection areas include hotels, tourism sites and attractions, tour guides, shop certificates, tourist VAT reimbursement, and beaches.[14] It also undertakes requested inspections at development sites in cooperation with the development and infrastructure department, and works with the Ministry of Transportation on taxi enforcement.[14] Inspectors handle complaints with the entities responsible for the relevant sites.[14]

Professional training has formed part of the ministry’s tourism-services work.[4] The professions covered in an earlier description included tour guides, travel agents, escorts for overseas groups, and hotel employees such as waiters, cooks, receptionists, administrators, and housekeeping staff.[4] That description also included licensing tourist services—including hotels, restaurants, travel agents, guides, and shops—and monitoring their quality.[4]

Other visitor-service functions have included tourist bureaus, discounts and exemptions for tourists, visitor events, and emergency arrangements.[4] The government service portal provides direct access to tour-guide licensing and tourism-service complaints, alongside information and investment services.[6] A December 2021 account of the following year’s work plan assigned approximately NIS 10 million to the Tourist Experience Administration and included hotel labor shortages, guide training and licensing, and tourism-site maintenance and cleanliness among its responsibilities.[15]

The Infrastructure and Investment Development Administration encourages the construction, improvement, and expansion of hotels and other tourism enterprises.[16] Its listed fields include statutory planning and real estate, country tourism, and financing and investment.[16] Infrastructure supported through the ministry’s broader activities has included hotels and youth hostels as well as promenades, attractions, and marinas.[4]

An earlier description assigned budget coordination, statistics, marketing data, research, and investment encouragement to a Planning and Economics Department.[4] Investment-related instruments included loans to tourism enterprises, land allocation, and recommendations for Approved Enterprise status under capital-investment legislation.[4] A December 2021 account of the ministry’s 2022 work plan described approximately NIS 520 million for infrastructure development and investment: about NIS 170 million for expanding accommodation, including hotels and camping, and approximately NIS 350 million for public tourism infrastructure.[15] The same account described about NIS 300 million for the Marketing Administration.[15]

On January 11, 2023, the ministry announced that its Development Budget Committee had approved approximately NIS 340 million from the 2022 budget for public tourism infrastructure.[17] Local authorities had submitted about 210 applications, of which approximately 160 met the threshold requirements.[17] Supported works included parking lots, promenades, bridges, trails, parks, observation points, and improvements to markets and public spaces.[17]

Project scoring gave the greatest weight to contribution to incoming tourism, at 35 percent.[17] Maintenance capacity, alignment with government and ministry policy, and local economic development each accounted for 15 percent, while nearby tourist accommodation and domestic tourism each accounted for 10 percent.[17] The total implementation cost of the projects was approximately NIS 700 million, with ministry contributions of about NIS 410 million, including the NIS 340 million from 2022 and funds from earlier years.[17] Local-authority contributions generally depended on each authority’s financial index, subject to exceptions established by relevant decisions.[17]

An audit conducted between January and August 2022 identified shortcomings in tourism-attraction maintenance policy and follow-up, including the absence of a clear definition of a tourist attraction and of thorough national mapping of attraction conditions.[18] During 2011–2020, the ministry allocated approximately NIS 1.2 billion to 77 public tourism infrastructures and attractions.[18] Of those sites, 14, or 18 percent, appeared on the Tourism Experience Administration’s audit list, and five, or 6 percent, appeared in tourism-supply data collection.[18] The audit recommended clearer maintenance responsibilities, stronger supervision, and enforcement of maintenance obligations for funding recipients.[18]

In September 2025, director general Michael Izhakov announced the Lighthouse unit, intended to assist tourism entrepreneurs and reduce bureaucratic delays through a one-stop-shop approach.[19] The proposed service combined personal guidance on planning, licensing, and tenders with a digital inquiry system, real-time project updates, bottleneck identification, schedules, reports, and professional advice.[19] An interministerial steering committee was also planned to help address the bureaucracy entrepreneurs could face after ministry approval of a project’s program and recommendations.[19]

In February 2007, the ministry sponsored and hosted a four-day visit by approximately 600 French Catholic clergymen and officials led by the archbishop of Paris, André Vingt-Trois.[2] Their itinerary included the Galilee, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a meeting with Palestinian Catholic officials.[2]

By December 2014, the ministry had invested close to NIS 100 million in developing and maintaining infrastructure at Christian sites, with the aim of enriching pilgrims’ experiences.[20] Tourism Minister Uzi Landau and ministry representatives met regularly with church leaders and communities to promote pilgrimage to the Holy Land.[20] Following Pope Francis’s May 2014 visit to Israel, the ministry invested an additional NIS 2.5 million in infrastructure and marketing to build on the visit.[20]

For Christmas 2014, the ministry coordinated with church officials and other bodies to facilitate celebrations for an estimated 70,000 visitors.[20] Landau was scheduled to host a pre-Christmas reception in Jerusalem for Christian community and church leaders, with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III, Vatican ambassador Giuseppe Lazzarotto, and Custos of the Holy Land Pierbattista Pizzaballa among those named as attendees.[20] Landau affirmed the government’s commitment to investment in Christian holy sites and to Christian freedom of worship in Israel.[20]

The ministry also prepared for Muslim tourism after the Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and four Arab states.[10] Then-minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen stated that Israel’s tourism sector had begun preparing for Muslim visitors, while senior officials expected tens of thousands of such visitors in the coming months.[10] The ministry was mapping Islamic religious sites around the country as part of these preparations; the expected visitor numbers were projections rather than recorded arrivals.[10]

The ministry’s responsibilities extend beyond promotion to the protection and upkeep of selected non-Jewish religious sites.[10] Selected Jewish sites fall under the Ministry of Religious Services.[10] The legal framework provides penalties for damaging religious sites and gives the government, rather than the courts, authority to determine the scope of worship rights at certain sites.[10]

Jerusalem has been a major focus of the ministry’s planning and investment activity.[3] A 1995 programmatic plan, developed through professional steering committees, addressed infrastructure, conventions, marketing, East Jerusalem development, and attractions.[3] Its proposed planning and implementation framework brought together the ministry, the Israel Government Tourist Corporation, the Jerusalem Development Authority, and the municipality, while retaining central-government leadership over development.[3]

National tourism plans prepared after 1967 repeatedly emphasized increasing Jerusalem’s hotel capacity.[3] A mid-1990s national plan anticipated five million tourists in 2020 and proposed 10,000 additional guest rooms in Jerusalem and 3,000 in the surrounding area.[3] These were planning forecasts and proposed additions, not evidence that either the visitor forecast or construction targets were achieved.[3] Under the Cabinet-approved Merom Development Plan, the ministry was to designate an additional US$21.5 million for Jerusalem hotel construction as part of an effort to strengthen the city through tourism and high-tech.[21]

The ministry’s incoming-tourism survey found that 75 percent of visitors to Israel in 2015 visited Jerusalem, the highest share among Israeli cities.[22] The proportions were 96 percent among visitors from South and Central America, 91 percent from African countries, 89 percent from North America, 79 percent from Asia, and 69 percent from Europe.[22]

The ministry’s economic objectives link tourism to employment, GDP, the balance of payments, and investment in infrastructure and tourism initiatives.[1] Its policy work has included support, rehabilitation, and growth measures spanning the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent continuing security-related crisis.[1] In January 2023, Haim Katz identified reducing obstacles, expanding accommodation, and developing infrastructure as priorities, and emphasized domestic tourism as an economic force alongside inbound tourism.[23]

In December 2017, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin announced the Trans-Israel Trail initiative, proposing a branch of the Israel National Trail that would cross the Green Line.[24] The decision also called for reviewing the existing route and making it more attractive to international tourists, and the ministry allocated NIS 10 million to formulate a plan.[24] An interministerial committee discussed the proposal and submitted a report, but the process was subsequently essentially frozen amid domestic political upheaval.[24] The proposed branch provoked fierce debate between right-wing supporters and left-wing opponents over its political implications.[24]

Central-government influence over Jerusalem tourism planning has also attracted criticism concerning fragmented plans, the absence of a single body overseeing planning through implementation, and constraints on local authority.[3] The associated debate concerns whether centrally directed development adequately accommodates Jerusalem’s urban and topographic conditions.[3]

A December 2021 account of the 2022 marketing budget recorded disagreement over the effectiveness of marketing expenditure.[15] An unnamed government source questioned its impact, while the ministry defended some spending as a creative means of retaining essential tourism-sector workers.[15]