Increase in tourist arrivals

THE NUMBER of arrivals registered for February was up 3 per cent over 1998 at 108,529.

Arrivals for the January-February 1999 period were also up 1.6 per cent, with 205,743 people entering Cyprus. During the same two-month period in 1998, there were 202,445 arrivals.

Of those arriving in February, 74,041 were tourists, an increase of 3.4 per cent on last year’s 71,634. For the January-February period, tourist arrivals increased by 4.6 per cent on last year, rising from 125,926 to 131, 781.

Of February’s tourists, the vast majority hailed from EU countries (81.3 per cent). Visitors from the UK made up 51.9 per cent of this number, followed by Germany with 12.9 per cent, Greece with 4.8 per cent, Russia with 4 per cent and Switzerland with 2.4 per cent.

Cyprus residents returning from trips abroad during February numbered 30, 033, another increase on last year, when 28,531 Cypriots were logged as returning.

February also saw 405 people moving to Cyprus to settle here permanently.

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.