Cyprus tourism rebounds in February

The Cyprus tourism industry recorded one of its strongest increases for years in February, with arrivals rising by 11.2% compared with the same month of the previous year.

On the basis of the results of the Passengers’ Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 70,140 in February 2008 compared to 63,098 in February 2007.

The last time tourism arrivals rose this high for non-seasonal reasons (the timing of Easter) was in May 2004, when arrivals rose by 13.0%.

The rebound was led by the large UK market, which has been moribund of late.

Tourist arrivals from the UK increased by 4.4%, from 31,481 in February 2007 to 32,877 in February 2008.

There was also an increase of 24.8% in arrivals from Germany, from 5,535 in February 2007 to 6,910 in February 2008.

In 2007 arrivals from the UK fell by 5.7% and Germany 9.4%.

Growth in arrivals from Greece, which rose by 10.3% in 2007, accelerated, increasing by 38.7% from 6,594 to 9,146.

For the period January-February 2008 arrivals of tourists totalled 120,798, compared with 114,947 in the corresponding period of 2007, recording an increase of 5.1%.