North Beach in Eilat, Israel. Photo: wiki commons.

A record 306,000 tourists and visitors entered Israel in September, an all-time high for the month, according to a Central Bureau of Statistics report issued Monday. The report said 8 percent more visitors had come to Israel in September than in the same month last year, and 13 percent more than in September 2010.

The bureau recorded 70,000 one-day visits, a 28-percent increase from last year, of which 33,000 were cruise-ship vacationers visiting for the day. Ben-Gurion International Airport noted a 6 percent increase in travelers in September as well, with 1,225,837 travelers passing through the airport last month. The Israeli Airports Authority said there had been a 1.7 percent increase in departures and arrivals compared with September 2011.

The most popular destinations for travelers leaving from Ben-Gurion Airport last month were the U.S., Greece, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, France, Britain and Spain. The airport that received the most traffic from Ben-Gurion was Kiev’s, likely due to the annual pilgrimage of ultra-Orthodox Jews to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov during the High Holy Days. Since January, the Central Bureau of Statistics has recorded 2.6 million visitors to Israel, 7 percent more than the same time period last year, setting another record.