“Israel expects to increase the number of tourists from Russia by 10-15% in 2017”, - said the Director of the department of the Ministry of Tourism of Israel in Russia Ksenia Kobyakova. "We expect 10-15% growth of the number of tourists traveling from Russia in 2017. Now we are working in the field of increasing the number of flights from Russia to Israel and expand the geography". She noted, that if we talk about very optimistic plans for the coming years - "Israel would like to ensure Russia the first place of arrivals". In 2016, Israel was visited by more than 2.9 million travelers from all over the world (excluding one-day tourists), which is 4% more than in 2015. The Russian tourist flow to Israel in 2016 amounted 266 thousand people. Now on the first place by the number of tourists is the US - 600 thousand Americans came to the country last year.