Russians hold up tourism in September–update

Tourism arrivals recovered for a second straight month in September, rising by 4.7% to reach
289,126 compared with 276,178 in September 2009.
The main reason for the increase was a 60.8% rise in tourist arrivals from Russia, from 20,691 in September 2009 to 33,267 in September 2010.
This is encouraging, as it suggests that the 81.1% rise of Russian arrivals in August was not exclusively the result of the fires around Moscow that led many Russian to flee the country.
Arrivals from Germany also showed a healthy increase, up by 22.3%, from 12,278 in September 2009 to 15,014 in September 2010.
On the other hand, there was a drop of 6.2% in arrivals from the United Kingdom, to 137,473 in September 2010 from 146,530 in September 2009, no doubt as a result of weak British sterling relative to the euro.
There was also a 2.9% decrease in arrivals from Sweden , to 16,021 from 16,501 last year.
A slow start to the year means that for the whole January – September 2010 period arrivals of tourists rose by only 1.3% over the year earlier, to reach 1,777,456 compared with 1,754,890 in the corresponding period of 2009.

Revenue rises 2.7% in August

Revenue from tourism rose by 2.7% to EUR 241.1 mln in August 2010 compared with EUR 234.8 mln in August 2009.
For the period January – August 2010 revenue from tourism is estimated at EUR 1,050.5 mln, compared with EUR 1,033.1 mln in the corresponding period of 2009, recording an increase of 1.7%.

Travel abroad up 8.8%

Meanwhile, travel abroad show a strong increase in September.
On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, 112,355 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in September 2010 compared with 103,286 in the corresponding month of 2009, thus recording an increase of 8.8%.
In September 2010 there was an increase of 5.5% in the number of trips of residents to Greece (from 32,936 in September 2009 to 34,745 in September 2010).
There was an increase of 13.0% in trips to the United Kingdom (from 25,647 to 28,969 this year).