Gulf and Russian tourists flock to Cyprus

Offsetting a poor year 

 

Arrivals of tourists in Cyprus fell for the third consecutive month in October, falling by 3.2% year on year to reach 283,049, compared with 292,273 in October 2005.

A decrease of 4.0% was recorded in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom (159,205 in October 2006 compared to 165,809 in October 2005) as well as 53.1% decrease from France (3,086 compared to 6,577 last year) and 53.0% decrease from Ireland (5,457 compared to 11,621 in October 2005).

However a significant increase of 22.8% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Norway (from 5,209 in October 2005 to 6.399 in October 2006) and 15.8% increase from Sweden (from 12,347 to 14,292 this October).

 

Gulf and Russia the strongest markets

 

Gulf countries and Russia were the strongest markets in the first ten months of the year.

While total arrivals fell by 2.4% year on year in January to October, to 2,234,219, arrivals from the Gulf rose by 20.4% in the same period to reach 14,589.

Within that category, arrivals from the United Arab Emirates rose by 25.5% to 7,077.

Another strong market has been Russia. Arrivals from Russia rose by 17.2% year on year in January to October to reach 108,669.