According to the prestigious Travel & Leisure Magazine, Jerusalem is ranked as one of the top destinations in the world by their discerning readers.
In an annual poll of its online readers published earlier this week, the capital was ranked 17th in the ‘World’s Best Cities – Overall’ list, ahead of popular destinations such as London, Paris and Barcelona. Among the cities in the Middle East, Jerusalem was ranked third (behind Cape Town and Fez, Morocco).
Tel Aviv did not make the top 20 list, though it did rank seventh among cities in the Middle East and Africa.
Jerusalem attracts over two million tourists a year, with about 80% of all tourists visiting the holy city. The city also contains within it the most visited sites in Israel, including the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Via Dolorosa, Yad Vashem and the Mount of Olives.