JERUSALEM, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists who visited Israel increased in the first quarter of 2019 by 69 percent year on year, according to data released Wednesday by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

In Jan.-March 2019, some 42,700 Chinese tourists visited Israel, compared to 25,200 in the first quarter of 2018 and 34,200 in the last quarter of 2018, according to the statistics.

The total number of tourists visiting Israel in the first quarter of 2019 was about 1.05 million, up 11 percent compared to the same period in 2018, and a 12 percent decline compared with the last quarter of 2018.

A monthly average 391,000 tourist entries to Israel was recorded in Jan.-March 2019, compared with a monthly average of 374,000 during the period of Oct.-Dec. in 2018.

The data also shows that in the first quarter of the 2019, some 1.5 million Israelis went abroad, a decrease of 1.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018.