Two thirds book flights online

More than two thirds of Cypriot tourists, 67.1 per cent, booked their flights online in 2014, a number roughly the same as the EU average of 67.4 per cent, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

A Eurostat report also reveals that half of EU tourists, 54.8 per cent, booked accommodation online, while the figure for Cyprus is 45 per cent.

In two member states – Finland (90 per cent) and the Netherlands (81 per cent) – air travel was booked online in more than 80 per cent of cases. At the opposite end of the scale, the least amount of tickets was bought over the internet in Romania (23 per cent) and Slovakia (27 per cent).

As regards tourist accommodation bookings, the Netherlands tops the list with 69 per cent, while online bookings accounted for fewer than ten per cent in Romania and Bulgaria.

According to the report, websites are the starting point for e-business. In 2015, 95 per cent of all EU enterprises in the accommodation sector had a website, compared with 75 per cent of enterprises of 10 or more persons in the entire economy. With 74 per cent of enterprises providing online ordering, reservation or booking through their website, the accommodation sector was significantly ahead of the whole economy (17 per cent) in the EU.

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.