Tourism revenue continued on its downward path in September, with the latest monthly statistics suggesting earnings dropped a whopping 22.6% year-on-year by €80 mln, but year-to-date figures showed that the decrease was slower, at €42 mln compared to the same nine-month period last year.
This follows an earlier trend that saw revenues drop by about €17 mln or -5.1% in July, compared to the same month in 2013, while increases had been recorded in April, May and June.
Officials at the Cyprus Tourism Organisations had been giving optimistic messages ever since the economic crisis broke in March 2013, saying all this time that visitor numbers were on the rise and recovering, not realising that at the end of the day it’s the revenue that matters to the economy.
The monthly Passenger Survey conducted by the statistical service Cystat showed that revenue from tourism dropped to €273.4 mln in September compared to €353.4 mln in the same month last year, as tourist arrivals too dropped in September by 11.5% compared with a year earlier.
For the January-September period, Cystat said revenue from tourism is estimated at €1,697.6 mln compared to €1,739.7 mln in 9M:2013, a decrease of 2.4% or €42.1 mln.
The average stay in the ninth month period increased to 10.6 days (lower than the January-July average of 10.7 days), compared with 10.5 days in the same period last year, but despite the marginally longer stay, spending was down.
Cystat said total expenditure per capita dropped by 12.6% to €863.6 from €988 in September 2013, while total expenditure per day saw a similar decrease to €81.1 from €94.
In October, Cystat had reported that revenue from tourism reached €321.2 mln in July compared to €338.6 mln year-on-year, a drop of 5.1%, despite a 5.7% increase in arrival numbers.
On the other hand, the Passenger Survey for the period January-July had seen total revenue rise to €1,099.9 mln compared to €1,036.2 mln in the same period of 2013, an increase of 6.1%.
The average stay of tourists in July increased to 10.7 days, compared to 10.5 days in July 2013.
The longest staying tourists in July were those from the USA with 14.1 days, followed by the Irish with 13.5 days and the U.K. with 11.2 days.
Total per capita spending in July dropped to €841 compared to €936.80 in July 2013, while daily spending dropped to €78.30 from €89.40.
The highest per capita spending in July was recorded by tourists from France with €1,000.70, followed by the Swiss with €940.10 and the Russians with €934.40. The lowest per capita spending was recorded by the Greeks with €412.90, the Finnish with €557.20 and the Israelis with €597.20.
