Tourism revenue spikes 60%

Income from tourism reached €45.6 mln in January, easily surpassing the revenue from tourists last year and 2019, which set a record for Cyprus.

Based on the results of the Passenger Survey carried out by the Statistical Service, revenue from tourism was €45.6 mln in January 2023 compared to €28.2 mln in the same month of the previous year, recording an increase of 61.7%

Compared with January 2019, revenue from tourism marked an increase of 15%.

Tourist arrivals in January (90,549) and February have surpassed the respective arrivals of the first months of 2019 – signalling a bumper year.

According to CyStat, the average expenditure per person was €503.83 in January compared to €641.01 in January 2022, down by 21.4%.

Visitors from the United Kingdom (the largest tourist market with a 20.6% share) spent on average €49.84 per day, while Israeli tourists (the second largest market with 16.6%) were the biggest spenders with a daily average of €145.63.

On average, tourists from Poland (the third largest market with 12.3%) spent €62.61 per day.

The average stay for tourists in January was 8.6 nights from 14.1 last year on the average daily expenditure of €58.58 from €45.46.

Tourist arrivals hit 3.2 mln last year, despite Cyprus losing 800,000 Russian and Ukrainian tourists due to the war.

Visitor arrivals spiked 65% in 2022 after COVID-19 travel rules were dropped.

In 2022, tourist arrivals totalled 3,201,080 from 1,936,931 in the previous year, 631,609 in 2020 and 3,976,777 in pre-COVID 2019.