TOURISM: Russia soars, UK disappoints in Aug

Tourism arrivals climbed by 7.9% in the key month of August, reaching 363,573 compared with 337,013 in August 2011.
The biggest increase among larger markets was Russia, with arrivals rising by 55.5% compared with the same month of the previous year to 79,291 in August 2012. Russia is the second largest market after the UK.
There was also a healthy increase of 13.8% to 13,616 of arrivals from Germany, the third largest market, and a 6.9% increase to 18,545 of arrivals from Sweden, the fifth largest market after Greece.
Two of the large markets underperformed, however. There was a drop of 7.0% in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom to 146,136 and a 7.8% fall in arrivals from recession-stricken Greece to 12,251.
The Statistical Service has now made estimates for arrivals from selected major markets in March. A Passenger Survey was not conducted in March because the budget for casual staff had not been approved by the opposition-dominated House Finance Committee.
For the period January – August 2012 including March, arrivals of tourists rose by 3.5% to 1,728,766 compared with 1,669,887 in the corresponding period of 2011.
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