Tourist arrivals in Cyprus from Russia expected to increase

The Cyprus Tourist Organisation (CTO) said on Friday it expected tourist arrivals from Russia to be over 400,000, announcing at the same time the launching of flights from sever more airports of the Russian Federation.

In 2012 flights will be conducted to Cyprus from 16 towns of the Russian Federation, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Rostov, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Kemerovo, Arkhangelsk and Perm.

A CTO delegation, headed by the organisation’s Chairman Alekos Orountiotis, visited the Russian capital from February 6 to 9 and had meetings with key tour operators from Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Speaking during a press conference, Orountiotis said that the results of their meetings were very encouraging and that Cyprus continues to be a tourist destination for the Russian market “which is one of the main markets of priority for us.”

According to Orountiotis, in 2011, arrivals from Russia rose by approximately 50% and in 2010 also by 50%.

In 2004, there were 83,800 arrivals of Russian tourists, in 2005 97,000, in 2006 114,000, in 2007 145,000, in 2008 180,000, in 2009 148,000, in 2010 223,860 and in 2011 234,000.

Orountiotis said that they hope that tourist arrivals from Russia will be over 400,000, noting that the Russian market is the second largest tourist market for Cyprus, after the British one.