Tourism revenue hits £140 million in July

TOURISM revenue rose to £140 million in July, an increase of 3.7 per cent over the £135 million for the same month last year, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) said yesterday.

The figures released also show that from January to July 2005 total receipts from tourism clocked in at £512.5 million, compared to £505.2 million for the same months in 2004, a 1.5 per cent increase.

“The numbers are small but they are important,” said a CTO spokesman referring to the prolonged slump in revenue over the past three years. “It’s good to see a positive sign of recovery.”

During the first three months of this year, although arrivals rose 10 per cent, revenue failed to keep pace, rising only 2.8 per cent.

A closer examination of the data showed that revenue was down five per cent in January and 7.6 per cent in February. It only rose in March by 13.2 per cent, and when added to the other two months and averaged out gave the impression of a steady increase. At the time, hoteliers criticised the government for “spinning” the figures to paint a rosy picture.

Revenue has been a contentious issue for the island’s tourism for the past three years, dropping from an all-time high of £1.27 billion in 2001 when 2.7 million tourists visited the island, to only £988 million last year when arrivals were around 2.3 million. Arrival figures have been slowly climbing back, but revenue appears to be still lower than it should be.

“In general terms, our forecasts for this year are a five per cent increase in arrivals and a revenue figure the same as last year,” said the CTO spokesman. “We want to keep the income steady and it appears we will achieve this target.”

The spokesman said the July indicators were all important to year-end forecasts. “July is an important month and it holds a lot of weight to the final results for the year,” said the spokesman.

Overall, tourism rose 7.1 per cent so far this year, compared to the first six months of 2004. Holidaymakers from the UK, which make up over 50 per cent of the tourist flow, increased nearly 6 per cent this year, rising 12 per cent in July over the same month last year. Nearly 200,000 Britons visited the island in July.

Tourism from Germany, the second biggest market, increased 24 per cent in the first six months, over the same six months in 2004.

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