Tourism revenue lag inflation growth

Tourism revenue in January 2006 staged a 2.4% year-on-year increase to CYP 21.2 mln compared to CYP 20.7 mln a year ago in the same month and in sharp contrast to a steep decline in tourism arrivals in January, the Statistics Department announced.

During January ‘06, tourism arrivals fell 6.8% to 54.800 from 58.800 a year ago in January.

While the revenue increase in January is encouraging, the total income is still 2.8% below the CYP 21.8 mln in revenue earned in January ‘04 and 17.4% below the CYP 25.6 mln revenue earned in January ‘03. Considering the massive price increases recorded since 2003, then its obvious that revenue growth is well below the long term average income.

During 2005, Cyprus received a total of 2.47 mln tourists generating CYP 1.01 bln in revenue, while in 2004, total arrivals were 2.34 mln on CYP 982.3 mln revenue.