Cyprus tourism recovers in October

Russian arrivals still booming

After a slight dip in September, tourism arrivals recovered in October, rising by 4.8% compared with October 2004, and bringing the year-to-date rise to 6.2% compared with January-October 2004.

By country the picture was very mixed. Arrivals from the UK, the largest market supplying more than half of all tourists, rose by 3.0% but arrivals from the next three markets: Germany, Sweden and Greece all fell.

Arrivals from Greece dropped by 17.7% year on year, after falling by 26.6% in September. The drop from Greece is partly the result of high growth in September and October 2004, but the Helios Airways crash in Athens in August of an aeroplane that set off from Larnaca may also have had a negative impact on arrivals from Greece.

Among the bigger markets, Ireland was the star performer, up by 110.4% on October 2004 to 11,621 arrivals, the highest this year from the emerald isle.

The apparent recovery in Russian tourism also continued, with arrivals up by 37.6%, after rising by 49.9% in September.

Hoteliers report that Cyprus is benefiting from a number of factors: the relaunch of cruises to the Holy Lands, smoother visa procedures for Russians and “spillover” of tourists who might normally have gone to Turkey or Egypt but were put off by terrorist attacks there.