Cyprus tourism arrivals climb again by 6.4% in Sep

UK arrivals finally show an increase

After four consecutive quarters of decline, tourism arrivals in Cyprus finally turned the corner in the third quarter of 2007, rising by 5.8% compared with the third quarter of 2006.

For September alone, the Statistical Service CYSTAT announced that on the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists rose by 6.4% to reach 315,437, compared with 296,532 in September 2006.

After 13 months of year-on-year decline, an increase of 4.7% was recorded in tourist arrivals from the UK (from 170,708 in September 2006 to 178,664 in September 2007). Â

The UK remains Cyprus‘s most important tourism market, accounting for at least half of all arrivals.

However, arrivals from Germany were down for a seventh consecutive month: falling by 5.9% to 15,192 in September 2007 from 16,149 in September 2006.

Markets that have been performing well this year continued to shine.

There was an increase of 43.9% in arrivals from Russia (from 15,873 to 22,839) and a 22.5% increase from Sweden (from 14,429 to 17,677 this year).

Arrivals from the United Arab Emirates were up 7.9% to 777, compared with 720 in September 2006.

During the period January – September 2007, arrivals of tourists totalled 1,972,493 compared with 1,951,173 in the corresponding period of 2006, recording an increase of 1.1%.

There has been a slow increase in arrivals from Turkey, which reached 141 in January-September.

Revenue in the first seven months of the year reached CYP 564 mln (EUR 965 mln), marking a rise of 4.0% on the same period of 2006.

Fiona Mullen