Cyprus Expects to Welcome More Than 2 Million Tourists This Year
Like in the previous years, the main tourism source will remain the United Kingdom – accounting for 39.2 per cent of all arrivals, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
Other countries to follow will be Russia (19.7 per cent) and Greece (5.2 per cent), while Germans and Swedes are expected to represent 4.2 and 4.1 per cent of all arrivals this year. In addition, 3.7 per cent of the tourists this year are expected to come from Israel.
Nearly 14 per cent of Cyprus’ GDP is generated from tourism, which makes the country quite dependent on the industry. More specifically, the Cypriot economy has been quite affected by the war in Ukraine, as fewer Russian tourists are expected to visit.
Data from Statista reveals that European countries are anticipated to welcome three million fewer Russian arrivals in the upcoming months, based on the number of seats booked for inbound flights between February and August 2022.
In other words, Germany is expected to lose about 552,910 Russian visitors, followed by Greece (303,843), Italy (229,003), Hungary (203,086), and France (179,380).
However, a surge in British tourists is expected to help Cyprus’s tourism recover rapidly from the pandemic.
As the data shows, the total tourist arrivals in Cyprus reached 128,840 in March this year, up from 8,811 registered during the same period last year and 55,342 recorded in March 2020.
Moreover, the Mediterranean country has facilitated its travel rules for Britons, permitting them to enter without having to provide a COVID019 flight pass or passenger locator.
According to a previous article by atozserwisplus.com reveals, Cypriot authorities anticipate that barely 20 per cent of the annual tourism market will be reached this year, provided that the country is coming out of a two-year-long pandemic.
“Based on our estimates, we expected to have one million tourists from Ukraine and Russia this year, some 20-25 per cent of the tourist market of Cyprus. Τhe key is the duration of this crisis. If this ends in a month, we will come out unscathed. If it lasts more, no economy will manage to come out clean,” Minister Constantinos Petrides said.
