Cyprus tourism down 3.7% in August

The Cyprus tourism sector saw a 3.7% drop in arrivals in the peak seasonal month of August, as high airport charges, high oil prices and, for the British market, a weak sterling combined to put off travellers.
On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 328,100 in August 2008, down from 340,534 in August 2007.
A decrease of 4.6% was recorded in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom (178,257 in August 2008 compared with 186,761 in August 2007).
The euro has climbed against sterling this year, making Cyprus out of reach for many Britons facing recession.
However, the euro is not the only reason, as there as a more pronounced fall from fellow euro-member Germany, where a fall of 19.0% was recorded (to 10,313 compared to 12,731 last year).
Arrivals from eurozone member Ireland were also down by a huge 39.8%.
High airport charges imposed to pay for the new Paphos airport due in November and the new Larnaca airport due in 2009 have been blamed, together with sky high oil prices, which make destinations at the edge of Europe even more expensive.
More positively, the Russian market, supported by a buoyant Russian business sector, remains strong.
Tourism arrivals from Russia rose by 22.9%, from 24,689 in August 2007 to 30,342 in August 2008.
There was also a 6.0% increase from non-eurozone Sweden (from 16,885 to 17,892 this year).
For the period January – August 2008 arrivals of tourists totalled 1,660,506 compared with 1,657,055 in the corresponding period of 2007, recording an increase of 0.2%.
Revenue in the first seven months of the year fell by 2.0% to EUR 272.9 mln, according to the latest available figures.