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Russia continues to maintain its leadership amongst CIS countries for the number of tourists and pilgrims going to Israel on holiday . According to the Moscow office of the Israeli Tourism Ministry, in the period from January to March 2010 , the country was visited by 113,823 people, an increase of 103% compared to the same period in 2009 .
In March, Russian tourism to Israel amounted to 45,944 people, which is 91% more than in March 2009. This puts Russia second after the USA (58,109 persons) .
“ We are always happy to receive tourists and pilgrims from Russia. After the cancelling of the visa requirement, the flow of tourists to our country has been constantly growing. To preserve the current trend, our Ministry is actively working to provide the Russian public with information about the tourism opportunities in Israel. I n April 2010, we organised a virtual tourism exhibition , Go Israel, in which representatives of both the Russian and Israeli tourism markets were able to take part at the same time,” said Neta Peleg-Briskin, Counselor for Tourism at the Israeli embassy in Russia .
Israel
's Tourism Ministry estimates that the total number of tourists from Russia
in 2010 will increase by 37.5% to 550,000.