Tourism arrivals in Cyprus rose by a massive 43% over the year earlier in April, according to the latest figures from the Statistical Service.
According to the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists climbed to 199,762 in April 2011 from 139,658 in April 2010.
The April performance brought the increase for the first four months to 17.6%, with total arrivals numbering 405,463 compared with 344,664 in the corresponding period of 2010.
The increase in April is by far the fastest pace of increase in Sapienta’s records, which date back to January 1999.
This means that the increase cannot have been only because of a later Easter this year, which will have pushed most arrivals into April instead of March. Something else must also have contributed.
One likely reason for the increase could be the British Royal Wedding on April 29, which gave Britons an additional day’s holiday in between Easter and the early May bank holiday.
This meant that for only four days’ annual leave, you could go on holiday for 11 days.
This does appear to have had a positive impact on Cyprus. Having fallen for nine months in a row and been on a declining trend for almost three years, arrivals from the UK leapt by 29.1% over the year earlier in April, to 80,998, from 62,742 in April 2010.
However, the good news is that other more longer-lasting trends are also at play.
Arrivals from Germany rose by 30.8% to 17,956, from 13,724 last year, thanks no doubt to a fiery German economy that grew by 4.8% year on year in the first quarter, compared with 1.7% for Cyprus.
Arrivals from Russia were also very buoyant, jumping by 74.0% to 18,987, from 10,910 in April 2010.
This is largely owing to the strength of the rouble, which has been rising against both the dollar and the euro on the back of high oil prices.
According to IMF data, the rouble rose from a low of 48.1 per euro on average in August 2009 to 39.8 in March.
In 2010, arrivals from Russia rose by more than 50%. If the rouble keeps up its strength, tourism officials’ predictions of another 50% increase this year will no longer look too rosy.
Fiona Mullen
www.sapientaeconomics.com
