A survey conducted by the Geocartographic Institute on behalf of the Tourism Ministry revealed today that the Western Wall is still the most visited site by foreign tourists in Israel, HA’ARETZ reported. The findings are based on tourist visits during the first half of 2004.
According to the survey, 53 percent of all tourists visited the Western Wall in the first half of 2004. The second most visited site was the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. Old Jaffa came third, followed by the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, the Via Dolorosa, the Tower of David, Massada, and Caesarea.
The poll also reveals that 75 percent of tourists visited Israel independently, while 13 percent came on organized tours. Eighty percent of tourists said their trip to Israel was very good, or excellent.
On a scale of 1 to 5, the average score for overall satisfaction from a trip to Israel stood at 4.2. Ninety-five percent of tourists said they would encourage their friends to visit Israel, and 73 percent said they had no security concerns during their visit there.
Note from Steve: The 27 percent who must have claimed they did have security concerns probably did not have legitimate concerns, by which I mean they did not have any incidents or see anything to cause concern. They probably had concerns because of news stories over the last four years. I have taken many people to Israel over the last four years and though they expressed safety concerns before arriving in Israel, not one had a concern after being there. They said they expected bombs everywhere and were pleasantly surprised at how nice, modern, and sate it actually was in Israel.