Cyprus: Are the moneylaundering accusations affecting tourism?

**German tourists stay away in January**
Tourism got off to a bad start in January, with the number of tourists diving by 11.2% over the year earlier to 42,286, compared with 47,610 in January 2012.
The figures are not as complete as usual and the Statistical Service notes that these numbers are based on estimates.
This makes one wonder if the money ran out to pay the temporary workers who normally conduct the passenger survey. Last March there was no passenger survey because parliament had not approved the budget for these workers.
Among the large markets, for which data are available, the biggest slump was from Germany, with a drop of 52.5% to 2,905. Tourism arrivals from Germany have fallen by an average of 45.8% since November, around the time that German papers started to accuse Cyprus of being a moneylaundering centre—a charge which the government rigorously denies—and German politicians declared that they did not want to bail out tax-evaders.
This raises the question of whether the bad publicity has also dissuaded Germans from spending money in Cyprus.
Arrivals from the UK fell by 4.7% to 15,291 in January 2013.
There was an increase of 1.9% to 8,030 in arrivals from Greece and a 14% increase to 3,930 in arrivals from Russia, though this pace of increase was also slower than in recent times.
Fiona Mullen
www.sapientaeconomics.com