Cyprus tourism arrivals rebound again in July

Tourism arrivals rose for the second straight month in June, giving hope that the worst of the downturn in the tourism sector might be over.
According to the passengers’ survey carried out by the Statistical Service, arrivals of tourists rose by 5.5% over the year earlier to reach 275,280 in June 2010 compared with 260,931 in June 2009.
In May, arrivals had risen by 4.7% after a steep drop of 23% in April, probably largely as a result of volcanic ash disruption.
Arrivals from the UK, still by far the largest market, rose by 3.0% in July, from 129,032 in June 2009 to 132,893 in June 2010.
There was a strong rise of 53.5% in arrivals from Russia, which is now the second largest market for tourists and is the strongest growing, with arrivals rising from 23,961 to 36,770.
Despite or even perhaps because of the crisis in Greece, there was a 13.3% increase in arrivals from Greece, from 11,322 to 12,831.
Rising bank deposits from other euro area residents combined with anecdotal evidence suggest that Greeks have been visiting Cyprus in order to open bank accounts in what is seen as a safe haven.
On a more negative note, a decrease of 8.7% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Sweden, from 16,711 in June 2009 to 15,249 in June 2010.
There was also a 1.3% decrease in arrivals from Germany, from 10,052 to 9,919.
For the first six months of the year, arrivals were down by 0.6% at 877,958 compared with 883,002 in the corresponding period of 2009.
Arrivals from Russian during this period rose by 40.8% while arrivals from the UK fell by 5.2%.
Fiona Mullen
www.sapientaeconomics.com