Cyprus tourism declines for ninth straight month

Figures for April show that Easter brought no reprieve for the Cyprus tourism industry, as arrivals dropped year on year by 8.3% to 189,310.

The biggest market, the UK, continues to be the main problem. Arrivals from the UK fell by a huge 17.9% to 93,201. Britons, now expecting perhaps a fifth interest-rate within less than a year, appear to be staying at home.

The closure of the airline ajet in November last year has also cut capacity from Cyprus’s biggest market.

The German market also took a five in April after what looked like a turnaround in Jan-March.

Arrivals from Germany fell by 13.8% to 15,284.

However, some other markets are doing well, with huge increases in arrivals from Sweden (66.6%), Greence (23.2%) and Russia (33.3%) in April.

For the period January-April 2007 arrivals of tourists totalled 408,573, compared to 434,648 in the corresponding period of 2006, recording a decrease of 6.0%.