500,000 visit Jerusalem over holidays

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Over half a million people visited Jerusalem over the Pessah and Easter holidays, the Jerusalem Municipality announced over the weekend. The occupancy rate at Jerusalem's hotels was above 80 percent, with a notable increase in foreign tourists, said Yonatan Harpaz, director-general of the Jerusalem Hotels Association. The Western Wall remained the city's top tourist attraction with about 500,000 visitors during the week-long holiday, the city said. About 90,000 tourists visited the country for Easter and Pessah this year, up 20 percent from last year, the Tourism Ministry said.