This March (2022) a total of 498,600 Israelis traveled abroad.
The number of departures was several times higher than the figures for March 2020 (100,600) and 2021 (66,500), and slightly lower than the figure for March 2019 (551,600). The data, released by the Central Bureau of Statistics in early April, also include the age distribution of travelers, and it is interesting to see which age groups resumed flying and which were less inclined to do so.
A comparison of each month during 2020-2022 with the corresponding month in 2019 clearly indicates that all age groups resumed travel abroad. This March recorded the highest rate of return relative to the corresponding month in 2019, across all the age groups, since the start of the crisis.
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the 20-24 age group evidently resumed travel abroad more quickly than the other groups, with the largest discrepancy relative to other groups recorded during the months of May-August 2021. In July, for example, the number of departures recorded for this age group was 33% lower than the figure for July 2019, whereas the other age groups recorded a drop of more than 54%. This March the number of departures recorded for the 20-24 age group was only 6% lower than that of the corresponding month in 2019.
People aged 60 and above, who constitute a high-risk age group for COVID-19, were less inclined to travel abroad throughout the crisis and especially so at its very onset in 2020. This March, the number of departures recorded for this age group was 17% lower than the figure from March 2019.
The 0-19 age group is the only one whose recorded departures for this March reached the same level as that for March 2019. The number of departures recorded for this age group was in fact 9% higher than the figure for March 2019. The trend for this age group fluctuated throughout the crisis: some months this group was less affected than the other age groups and some months more so. ❖
Translated by Merav Datan.