CYPRUS: CTO eyes 400,000 tourists from China

The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) aims to attract around 400,000 Chinese tourists, its Chairman Angelos Loizou said on Tuesday, saying that efforts are underway to resolve visa issues for Chinese citizens.

A meeting will take place next Thursday at the Foreign Ministry and “once the problem is solved, the CTO can attract around 400,000 Chinese tourists,” he said.
Speaking of the forthcoming visit of President Nicos Anastasiades to China, Loizou said that the President will be accompanied by a CTO delegation to explore why past efforts to attract tourists from China were unsuccessful.
As regards the casino resort, regulations for which were announced last week, the CTO Chairman said it will attract some 500,000 more tourists a year.
Loizou said revenues from 2.4 mln tourists who visited last year amounted to 2.035 bln uros with tourists spending on average 829 euros per person or 77.5 euros per day.
He said the U.K. remains the main tourist market for Cyprus, followed by Russia, Greece, Sweden, Germany and Israel. He added that tourists prefer Paphos and Polis and then Famagusta, Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia.
From January to August 2015, there was an increase in tourist arrivals excluding June, while April and August saw record numbers of arrivals.
For the winter 2014/2015 season, the CTO Chairman said that there was an increase in arrivals of 68% from Israel, 49% from Arab countries, 22% from Germany and 12% from Greece.