Cyprus tourism has best year in over a decade

**Arrivals up 10.1% in 2011 **

The tourism sector had its best year in over a decade in 2011 , with arrivals rising by 10.1% compared with the previous year, up from an increase of 3.2% in 2010.
The last time tourism arrivals rose in double digits was in 2000.
Driving the increase was arrivals from Russia, which rose by 110,225 or 49.2% to 334,079, after an already steal increase of 50.5% in 2010. This performance confirmed Russia as Cyprus’ second largest market after the UK, accounting for 14% of all tourists.
There was a recovery in arrivals from the UK, which rose by 2.5% to 1,020,705 in 2011, compared with a drop of 6.8% in 2010. Overall the share of the UK market has been on a declining trend in recent years, accounting for 42.7% of tourists last year, down from more than 50% until 2008.
There was also a strong performance from Germany, with arrivals up by 13.4% to 157,886.
Tourism benefited in 2011 from a diversion of tourists from the Middle East. It might also have benefited from a recent upgrade of the two airports, as well as a reported increase in capacity from other airlines after the state-owned EuroCypria was closed.
Fiona Mullen
www.sapientaeconomics.com