TRAVEL: Most Cypriots can’t afford a week-long holiday abroad

A majority of Cypriots (52%) cannot afford to take a one-week foreign holiday once a year, according to Eurostat.

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Among EU countries, only the Romanians, Croats and Greeks take less holidays abroad than Cypriots.

It is estimated that 28.3% of the EU population aged 16 or over could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home in 2018, six years ago proportion was a higher 39.5%.

Among the 28 EU Member States, the countries with the highest proportions of individuals in this situation were Romania (58.9%), Croatia (51.3%, provisional data), Greece (51%) and Cyprus (51.0%, provisional data).

The corresponding percentage for Cyprus in 2017 was 52.3%, while in crisis-hit 2014 it peaked at 58.9%.

EU Member States with the lowest percentage of people unable to afford a one-week annual holiday were Sweden (9.7%) Luxembourg (10.9% 2017 data), Denmark (12.2% provisional data) and Austria (12.4%).

Over the last five years, the largest falls in the proportion unable to afford a one-week annual holiday away from home were in Bulgaria (down 35.8 percentage points since 2013 to 30.5% in 2018) and in Poland (down 26 percentage points since 2013 to 34.6% in 2018).

Greece was the only EU country in which the proportion increased over the same five-year period, up 2 percentage points to 51.0% in 2018.