July is disappointing for Cyprus tourist arrivals

Tourism arrivals in Cyprus were disappointing in July, with the number of arrivals falling year no year by 2.8% to 342,554, compared with 352,423 in July 2007.
Although there was a small icnrease from the all-important UK market, which supplies more than half of all tourists, and a large increase from Russia, there was a sharp decrease from some other important markets.
Arrivals from the UK rose by 1% to 187,401, from 185,489 in July 2007. Arrivals from Russia rose by 22.9% to 28,017 from 22m803 in July 2007.
However, there was a 19.4% decrease in arrivals from Greece (14,039 compared to 17,428) and a 19.8% fall from Germany to 10,545 from 13,142.
A decrease of 0.1% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Sweden (16,810 in July 2008 compared with 16,819 in July 2007.
For the period January – July 2008 arrivals of tourists increased by 1.2% to 1,332,406 compared with 1,316,521 in the corresponding period of 2007.

Outbound tourism up by 19.2% in June

By contrast, outbound tourism from Cyprus continues to record strong growth. On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, 101,973 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in June 2008 compared with 85,539 in the corresponding month last year, recording an increase of 19.2%.
In June 2008 there was an increase of 20.0% in trips of residents to Greece (from 29,692 in June 2007 to 35,617 in June 2008).
There was a 10.6% increase in trips to the United Kingdom (from 22,419 to 24,788 in June 2008).