Just under a decade ago, my wife and I visited Prague.

A beautiful, fascinating city, I recall that it had around six million visitors a year. One key site was the Jewish Quarter and its rich history. At that time, Israel’s tourism industry had posted a new ‘high’ of about 2.5 million tourists annually. In other words, ironically more foreigners were exposed to Jewish cultural interests via The Czech Republic than from the Holy Land itself.

Jump forward to November 2018. Yesterday, I attended a seminar hosted by the Israeli Tourism Ministry. In attendance were several prominent business mentors and coaches such as myself, listening to the Director General (in picture), senior academics in the profession and others.

The message? Times are a changing. The ministry is supporting a massive programme of building hotel rooms around the country. Tourists – especially those with deep pockets – are flocking in. This year is likely to conclude with about 4 million visitors for the first time.

So what has happened whereby that last month alone there were 60,000 extra visitors compared to October 2017?

A much heralded stat is that there are over 300 local start ups involved in the area of travel tech. Could this be one of the key reasons why flights to Eilat have risen tenfold in two years.

The ministry would also argue that much is to do with their change of policy. Instead of just passing out funds via local authorities, the mandarins today are deliberately targeting specific sectors. Those who win out are often seen to be enterprising and innovative.

For example, for the recent royal wedding in England, the ministry pulled a great ‘out-of-the-box’ stunt. They ran an advertising booth not far from Windsor Castle.

Israel is now on the map not just for religious tourists, travelling to holy sites in Jerusalem and around the Sea of Galilee. It provides a spot of relaxation for business vacationers. There are health resorts, medical tourism, wine tasting tours and much more. Geopolitical issues are now longer the handicap of the past. 2019, spurred on by the Eurovision Song Contest, looks as if it will see more records broken.