Cyprus tourism ends year on a positive note

The tourism sector in Cyprus managed to scrape a positive end to 2007, with arrivals of tourists rising by 3.8% in December compared with December 2006.

On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 73,742 in December 2007, compared with 71,022 in December 2006.

However, the picture for the full year is still gloomy, with the number of arrivals totalling 2,416,081 in January-December 2007, only a 0.6% increase on the 2,400,924 total for 2006.

In December an increase of 4.3% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Greece (from 10,772 in December 2006 to 11,237 in December 2007).

There was a 2.8% increase from Germany (from 5,816 to 5,981) and a 10.6% increase from Russia (from 2,805 to 3,103 in 2007).

On the other hand, a decrease of 1.7% was recorded in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom (31,862 in December 2007 compared with 32,412 in December 2006).