Cyprus tourism falls for fourth straight month

Cyprus’s plans to lengthen the tourist season have yet to be fulfilled, as the goldilocks month of October (neither too hot nor to cold) saw a fourth consecutive decline in tourist arrivals.
On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 267,866 in October 2008 compared to 275,103 in October 2007, recording a decrease of 2.6%.
The UK market, which was fallen 3% so far this year, remained weak. Arrivals from the UK fell by 4.9% to 142,868, from 150,301 in October 2007.
There was also a big decline in arrivals from Sweden, which had earlier bucked the trend and been a buoyant market. Swedish arrivals fell 20.2% to 14,795 compared to 18,541 in October 2007.
But the decline was not only in non-eurozone countries. Germany saw a 5.7% decrease (16,498 compared to 17,490) and Ireland saw a decline of 31.6% to 2,854.

Russia and Greece buck the trend
Russia and Greece bucked the trend, which could be related to business rather than leisure tourism.
Arrivals from Russia rose by 46.2% from 13,731 in October 2007 to 20,076 in October 2008, while arrivals from Greece rose by 8.3% (from 9,789 to 10,598 this year).
For the period January – October 2008 arrivals of tourists fell by 0.6% to 2,233,721 compared to 2,247,596 in the corresponding period of 2007.