JERUSALEM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Israel recorded 262,700 visitor arrivals in the country in May, 249,200 of which were tourists, the highest record since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

       The March-May period witnessed a steady growth in arriving tourists in Israel, with a total of 629,800 arrivals recorded, the bureau said.

       That is equivalent to a monthly average of about 209,933 visits, jumping four times from the 52,200-monthly average in the December 2021-February 2022 period, it said.

       The bureau attributed the upward trend in inbound tourism to the eased restrictions imposed on the Israeli tourism industry in the fight against COVID-19.

       Israel on March 1 opened its borders to foreign visitors including those unvaccinated against COVID-19, two months after permitting entry of vaccinated and recovered tourists.

       With less than 250,000 tourist arrivals, the number in May is still behind the pre-pandemic level same month in 2019, when 439,900 such arrivals were recorded, according to the official statistics.