Cypriots taking more holidays abroad

NEARLY 750,000 overseas trips were made by Cypriots last year, up almost 10 per cent on 2001 when around 685,000 Cypriots went abroad.
According to figures released by the Association of Cyprus Travel Agents (ACTA), of the three quarter of a million trips made abroad last year, some 467,000 – or 62 per cent – were holidays.

Holidays abroad costs Cypriots £246 million in 2002, a rise of 50 per cent over 2001. Five years ago, Cypriots spent only £132 million on foreign holidays when just 300,000 vacationed abroad.

The figures also show that the majority of people still pay for their holidays in cash, although credit card transactions are catching up.

While cash payments have been falling, payments by credit card have risen sharply since 1998. By 1999, credit card payments for holidays jumped 24 per cent while cash payments increased only 9.5 per cent.

Credit payments also jumped between 1999 and 2000, by 27.5 per cent, and the following year by 20 per cent. Between 2001 and 2002, payments by credit card rose 24.7 per cent and cash only 14.7 per cent.

ACTA said it expected 2003 figures to be similar to last year’s in view of the slump in the travel market as a result of the war in Iraq and the same external factors that have negatively affected incoming tourism this year.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.