North casino spending drops by 51%

Plastic card spending by Greek Cypriots in the “Occupied Areas and Attaleia” rose by 2.97% to EUR 4.66 mln in the first eight months of 2010, according to data from the credit card company JCC Payment Systems, up from EUR 4.53 mln in the same period of 2009.
Given the small number of people who travel to Turkey relative to those who visit the north, only a tiny proportion of that is likely to have been spent in Attaleia (Antalya)
The largest proportion of plastic card spending was on entertainment (EUR 1.3 mln), which is probably spent at the casinos, since they are banned in the south.
However, this was a dramatic drop of 51% on the EUR 2.7 mln spent in the first eight months of 2009. There could be two plausible reasons for this: either the recession is taking its toll on gamblers, or those little betting shops in the south, which hint that you can play casino games inside, and which have sprung up on every street corner this year, have taken the a chunk out of the market.

Airlines sales multiply
On the other hand there has been a massive increase in airline sales, which rose from just 51,950 in January-August 2009 to 912,706 in the same period of 2010, marking an increase of more than 17-fold.
What is not clear is if these are sales of flights through the unrecognized airport of Ercan (known as Tymbou for Greek Cypriots) or if these represent package tours to Turkey via Athens, which have become increasingly popular among Greek Cypriots.

Turkish Cypriot spending up 5.2%
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriots spent EUR 11.3 mln using credit and debit cards in the southern part of Cyprus during the first eight months of the year, a rise of 5.2% on the EUR 10.7 mln spent in the same period of 2009.
The most popular item was supermarkets (reaching EUR 2.46 mln), followed by clothing (EUR 1.990 mln) and “other retailers” (EUR 1.97 mln).

Fiona Mullen, Sapienta Economics Ltd