COVID19: Cyprus tourist arrivals slump 98% in June

Cyprus tourist arrivals suffered a sharp drop of 98.2% in June arrivals due to coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions, official data on Friday showed.

Following three months of lockdown, Cyprus only lifted a ban on commercial flights on June 9 while it restricts entry to countries based on their COVID-19 risk status.

With major market Britain, Russia and Israel out of the picture the authorities expect at best 20% of last year’s record 3.97 million arrivals.

According to the official data, tourist arrivals reached 9,119 in June from 509,662 last year, recording a decrease of 98.2%.

During the six months January – June 2020, arrivals of tourists dipped 84.3% reaching 255,675 compared to 1,631,023 in the same period of 2019.

In a breakdown, tourist arrivals from Greece fell by 75.8% in June while a drop of 93.1% was also recorded in tourists from Germany, a 93% decrease from Switzerland and 91.1% from Austria.

Cyprus residents travelling abroad

Some 11,726 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in June compared to 137,992 in the same month last year, recording a 91.5% plunge.

The main countries from which the residents returned in June were Greece, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Russia and Germany.

Compared to June 2019, travel to Greece fell by 88.8%, the United Kingdom decreased by 87.8%, trips to Bulgaria by 82.3%, Russia by 93.9% and Germany 90.2%.

The Statistical Service notes said June 2020 figures were obtained from processing the data of the electronic platform “Cyprus Flight Pass”.