The Ministry of Tourism reported that almost two million tourists came to Israel in 2005, a 28% increase over 2004. The Ministry added that the increase in tourism led to the creation of 16,000 jobs and $800 million in revenue. Minister of Tourism Abraham Hirshzon noted that the Ministry hopes to attract three million tourists per year by 2007. In 2005 3.7 million Israelis - nearly half the population - left the country, a two percent increase over 2004. There was a slight decrease in the number of people who left for the Sinai owing to recent bombings there and warnings from security organizations. For the full story click here.function initServerVars() { _headup.clientHost = 'http://newstopics.jpost.com'; _headup.termsFromServer = 0; _headup.annotatedTerms = 0; _headup.widgetMode = 'snippet'; _headup.snippetButtonStyle = 'banner'; _headup.blackListedUrl = false; } <!-- Terms Count: 0 TTL: 4 Terms From Server: DateTime: 6/12/2011 7:02:00 AM -->