Cyprus tourism falls for third month in a row

Cyprus enjoying early spring

Tourist arrivals fell year on year for the third month in a row in January, by 6.8% to 54,875.

The decline was witnessed across all the key EU markets: the UK (-5.1%), Germany (-19.9%), Sweden (-7.5%), Greece (-15.3%) and Ireland (-63.9%). However, non-EU markets, such as Russia (+43.9%) and Israel (+9.6%) held up.

Current temperatures of 20 degrees celsius in Cyprus and 3 to 4 degrees in countries such as Belgium and the UK may improve the arrivals figures for February and March.

There are three possible reasons for the three-month drop in total tourist arrivals.

First, worries about the future of Cyprus Airways may have encouraged people to go elsewhere. According to Financial Mirror sources, at lest one traveller has been told by a travel agent to cancel their Cyprus Airways ticket for March and fly with BA instead owing to the strikes by the highly paid pilots recently.

A second reason could be fears after the Helios Airways aeroplane crash last August which had set off from Larnaca.

A third reason could be the strength of the Cyprus pound, which is trading around 2% above its central rate in the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

A fourth reason–a miraculously contained single case of bird flu in northern Cyprus–may be less important, since the flu has spread so wide in any case.