Cyprus tourism rebounds in August by 8.1%

But market still segmented

 

The Cyprus tourism sector rebounded in August, the second most important month for the sector, as arrivals shot up by 8.1% over August 2006 to reach 340,534.

This compares with a rise of 3.2% in July and a fall of 1.7% over the first seven months of 2007.

The August increase brought the Jan-August result to a tiny rise of 0.1% over the same period of 2006.

Until June, the tourism sector had seen a decline for ten straight months, hit by five interest rates rises in the UK and a big spike in airport landing fees as a result of the ongoing upgrade of the country’s two airports.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that last-minute bookings helped August trade.

 

Market still segmented

 

The breakdown of figures by country shows that the sector remains sharply differentiated by country, however.

Arrivals from Sweden, the third largest market, shot up by 50.3% in August and by 32.8% in January-August, whereas arrivals from the UK, the largest market, fell by 1.1% in August and by 7.7% in the first eight months of the year.

Similarly, arrivals from Germany, the second largest market, fell by 11.1% in August and 8.4% in the first eight months.

Arrivals from Greece, the fourth largest market, did reasonably well, up 10.1% in August and 14.9% in Jan-August as a whole.

However, with the exception of Sweden it is the smaller, less traditional markets that are performing particularly well for the Cypriot tourism sector.

Arrivals from the United Arab Emirates soared by 47.4% in August and by 36.3% in January-August.

Arrivals from Russia rose by 53.7% in August and by 26.7% in the first eight months and arrivals from Israel rose by 70.3% and 3.7% respectively.

Revenue from tourism also appears to have turned the corner: up by 3.2% year on year in June and by 2.3% to CYP 395.9 mln (EUR 676.4 mln) in the first six months of 2007.

 

Fiona Mullen

Sapienta Economics Ltd