Tourist arrivals, overseas travel down in April

Tourist arrivals as well as overseas travel by Cyprus residents were down in April, with arrivals dropping by 2.7% to 333,563 in April, compared to 342,736 in April last year, recording a according to the Statistical Service Cystat.

The monthly passenger survey is conducted at Larnaca and Paphos airports and the ports.

Despite a drop in arrivals in January and April, a year-on-year increase in February and March helped raise the total number of arrivals in the first four months of the year to 748,814 compared to 736,629 in January-April 2023, an increase of 1.7%.

Britons remained the most popular market for holidaymakers to the island with arrivals from the United Kingdom accounting for 35.3% of total arrivals (117,902), followed by Israel with 10.7% (35,673), Poland with 7.6% (25,250), Germany 6.7% (22,510) and Greece 3.9% (13,056).

The vast majority, or 82.1% of all tourist arrivals stated “holidays” as the purpose of their trip in April, 9.4% said they were visiting friends and relatives, and 8.3% for business. In April 2023, 79.3% said they visited Cyprus for holidays, 14.5% for friends or relatives and 6.0% for business.

As regards overseas visits by Cyprus residents, the number dropped to 132.806 in April compared to 135,659 in the same month last year, a decrease of 2,1%.

The main countries chosen by Cyprus residents for their travels in April were Greece with a share of 35.7% (47,441), the United Kingdom with 9.6% (12,749) and Italy with 6.0% (7,907).

The purpose of overseas travel for Cyprus residents was mainly holidays, (61.1%), business (22.1%), studies (15.4%) and 1.4% for other reasons.