Cyprus tourism starts 2008 in the doldrums

But new low-cost airlines bring hope

 

The near absence of rain in the early year did not help the off-season tourism industry in Cyprus, which started the year in the doldrums, with tourism arrivals in January 2008 falling by 2.3% compared with January 2007 to 50,658.

The main reason appears to be a fall of arrivals from the UK, which was down 14.9% to 21,641.

The UK market has been weak now for well over a year and a half. However, the market may pick up as the year progresses, as a number of big name airline operators have started new, lower-cost flights to Paphos from smaller airports in the UK.

Cyprus had been notably absent from the budget airline industry’s radar until recently. More positively, an increase of 3.4% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Greece (from 6,944 in January 2007 to 7,183 in January 2008) as well as 24.3% increase from Germany (from 3,783 to 4,704 this year).

In 2007 tourism arrivals rose by 0.6% to 2.4 mln while revenue rose by 5.9% to EUR 1.9 bln.

 

Fiona Mullen