April tourism revenue trickles in at €31.7 mln

In April, revenue from tourism reached €31.7 mln from zero income last year as Cyprus was under a strict national COVID-19 lockdown.

From March to early June 2020, there was a ban on entry to the Republic for tourist flights.

Compared to pre-COVID 2019,  revenue from tourism in April is down by 83%.

For the four months, January – April, revenue from tourism is estimated at €46.3 mln from €115.3 mln in the same period of 2020, recording a decrease of 59.8% and an 87.7% dip compared to January-April 2019 (€375.2 mln).

A mixture of national lockdowns, quarantine and travel restrictions has decimated the island’s tourism industry which generated €2.68 bln in 2019 on record 3.97 million tourist arrivals.

Tourism was badly affected following lockdown measures taken by Cyprus to contain the spread of COVID-19, including the ban on commercial flights from March to early June.

Under normal circumstances, income generated from tourism contributes around 15% to GDP; the outlook is very different for 2021.

Revenue from Cyprus’ key tourism sector plunged more than 85% last year as the pandemic and lockdowns decimated the travel industry.

In 2020, revenue from tourism tumbled 85.4% generating only €392 mln.