First decline in tourist figures for four years

Tourist arrivals in March recorded a notable decrease, by 11.5 per cent compared to the corresponding month in 2018, marking the first decline in tourist arrival figures in almost four years.

In March 2019, Cyprus airports saw 169,934 tourist arrivals, while a total of 192,090 tourists arrived on the island in March last year, Cystat figures showed on Wednesday.

The notable decrease could be explained in the extraordinary increase that marked March 2018, when tourist arrivals increased by 36.4 per cent compared to the corresponding month of 2017.

Arrivals from the UK decreased by 6.9 per cent in March, while tourist arrival figures also decreased from Greece (8.5 per cent), Germany (36.6 per cent) and Israel (40.1 per cent).

This declines was slightly offset by arrivals from Russia and Ukraine which rose  10.1 per cent and a whopping 43.7 per cent respectively compared to March 2018.

Cystat figures showed that trips abroad by Cypriots increased by 9 per cent in March.

 

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.