“We’re not scared,” say Israeli tourists who are flocking to Sinai despite travel warnings to the area, writes Avital Zippel for Jerusalem Online. 2017 saw a 30% rise in Israeli tourists and families who visited Sinai for Rosh Hashanah. Zippel puts the numbers at nearly 10,000 visitors. The primary reason for the bump: “Because it’s cheap,” said one of the vacationers. The influx came despite Israeli border guards issuing repeated warnings on their loudspeakers. Hotel occupancy rates in Taba and Nuweiba soared last week to reach as much as 80% thanks to the Jewish New Year, Chairman of the Nuweiba-Taba Investors Association Samy Soliman tells Reuters’ Arabic service.

This comes as around 133,000 tourists visited Hurghada during the first three weeks of September, Al Masry Al Youm reports. Germans accounted for 68,000 of the town’s visitors during the month, alongside 12,000 Ukrainian, 9,600 Czech, and 9,000 British tourists.