Tourist arrivals up 6% in Nov, ytd up 20%

Tourist arrivals reached 159,605 in November, up 6.5% from the same month last year, helping to boost total arrivals for the year to 3,722,022, a whopping 20.4% increase from the 3,091,039 in the same period last year.

Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said last week that as of December 15, passenger traffic at airports exceeded the total traffic of the entire pre-pandemic year of 2019, when a record 11.3 mln passengers walked through Cyprus’ airports.

The same year, Cyprus welcomed a record 3.97 mln tourists.

According to the statistical service Cystat, arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for November, with a share of 26.8% (42,724), followed by Poland with 11.8% (18,874), Germany with 10% (15,984) and Greece with 9.7% (15,475).

Two thirds or 67.2% of all arrivals in November 2023 said they were here on holidays, 19.7% said they were visiting friends and relatives and 12.8% for business.

In the same month last year, 70.8% were in Cyprus for holidays, 15% visited friends and relatives and 14% for business.

Cypriot travels up 15%, a third to Greece

A total number of 117,487 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in November compared to 102,417 in the same month last year, an increase of 14,7%.

The main countries from which residents of Cyprus returned in November were Greece with a share of 33.9% (39,868), the United Kingdom with 13.5% (15,834) and Italy with 5% (5,914).

The purpose of travel for the residents of Cyprus was mainly for holidays, 68.1%, whilst business reasons accounted for 27.7%, those for studies were 2.3% and other reasons 1.8%.