JERUSALEM -- About 4.55 million tourists entered Israel in 2019, an all-time record, the state's Ministry of Tourism reported on Sunday.

There is a 10.4 percent increase compared to 4.12 million tourists who visited Israel in 2018.

The data also show that the annual number of tourists arriving in Israel in the last three years has increased by 1.6 million.

According to the ministry, tourists visiting Israel in 2019 injected about 20 billion new shekels (about $5.78 billion) into the state's economy.

Israel's Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin said that "this historic achievement is a direct result of the ongoing revolution in marketing Israel worldwide, in infrastructure development, incentives for international airlines to open new routes into the country and collaborations with the world's leading tourism agents."

The figures also show that the number of tourist overnight stays in hotels is expected to reach about 12.1 million in 2019, compared with 11.6 million in 2018, an increase of 4.3 percent.

The number of the Chinese tourists visiting Israel in 2019 is expected to exceed 157,000, as the final data is supposed to be published by the ministry and the Central Bureau of Statistics next week.

In 2018, some 114,200 Chinese tourists visited Israel, and in 2019 this figure is expected to be at least 37 percent higher.

In January-November this year, 144,400 tourists from China visited Israel, an increase of 39.1 percent compared to the same period of 2018.