Between January and October, 1,589,700 tourists came to Israel, a 27 percent increase over the same period last year. There was a 50 percent increase in the numbers that arrived by land and a 30 percent increase in those arriving on direct flights to Eilat. “This increase once again shows that there is a momentum in tourism, and it indicates how important tourism is for the growth of the Israeli economy,” Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson said.