Madonna's visit to Israel on a Kabbalah pilgrimage last week is helping to reassure travellers that it's becoming a safer holiday destination, tourism chiefs hope.

Despite a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the tourist board said the pop diva's five-day trip is expected to be a big boost for tourism.

'The area the bomb happened in wasn't a tourist area,' she said. 'Since Madonna visited, we've had a lot more calls from the public. A lot of people don't realise that Israel is a very modern, westernised country and there's so much to do. They just see what's on TV, but terrorism isn't central to Israel, it's all over the world.'

At the end of her trip Madonna said: 'I was a bit hesitant to come here after seeing so many news reports about terrorist attacks and reading countless travel safety warnings about how dangerous it is to be here if you are an American. I realise now that it is no more dangerous to be here than it is to be in New York, and I would like to emphasise the fact that I feel very safe and welcome.'

The Centre for Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism which Madonna follows, organised her trip and she was accompanied by around 1,200 other guests from 22 countries who were also making the pilgrimage to visit the grave of Kabbalist sage, Rabbi Yehuda Ashla. She stayed in Tel Aviv, but travelled to the north, to Zfat, Jerusalem and Galilee.

Between January and July of this year 80,000 British people visited Israel, a 63 per cent increase on the same period last year. The tourist board expects this year's total to reach 1.4 million.

The Foreign Office didn't change its travel advice following the latest bomb. It advises against travel along the Lebanon border and close to the Gaza Strip, to Nablus, Jenin and to the West Bank at night as there is a high threat of terrorism and military activity.

See fco.gov.uk