LEISURE: Twelve months to July 2018 was the best in the history of Cyprus tourism

Tourist arrivals in Cyprus in the year to July 2018 are the highest ever recorded over a 12 – month period, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation said.

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Between July 2017 and July 2018, the number of tourist arrivals in Cyprus was 3.84 million, which the CTO described as “the best twelve-month period in the history tourism in Cyprus”.

It said that “each calendar month of 2018 presents a record high for arrivals when compared to the corresponding months of any previous year”.

Cyprus Statistical Service said that July 2018 saw the most tourists ever arrive for that month, recording an annual increase of 1.6%.

Official data shows that tourist arrivals in July reached 539,626 compared to 531,030 in July 2017.

During the first seven months of the year tourist arrivals were 2,184,775 from 1,994,236 during the same period of 2017, recording an increase of 9.6%.

This seven-month arrivals figure also breaks new ground for Cyprus.

Growth countries from which tourists chose Cyprus as a holiday destination, were Sweden with a 15% increase in July, while arrivals from Lebanon also rose 15.9%.

Tourist arrivals from the UK were down 1.1%, dipped 5.9% from Russia, Israel fell 22.2% and Germany by 4.5%.

The UK continues to be the main source of tourism for Cyprus having a share of 32.4% of the market. It is followed by Russia (22.5%), Israel (6.1%) and Sweden (4.8%).