Tourism continues to go from strength to strength in Cyprus as records show that in the first half of 2022, the island welcomed over 1.22 million visitors. Although still down from the record highs of 2019, where we saw 1.63 million for the same period, it’s going in the right direction!
According to the Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat), there was a pre-pandemic tourist rate of 686,783 in the period covering January – April 2019, this year, those numbers came in at 534,040.
To put it into perspective of how tourism has been affected through the pandemic, the same period, January to April 2021, the numbers were at just 55,973 as we were making our way through various lockdowns and tight travel regulations.
June saw the arrival of 372,324 tourists, more than double of what we saw in 2021 of 184,159.
It’s a very welcome sign that numbers are continuing to grow, especially with the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has meant the absence of Ukrainian and Russian visitors.
Hopefully that growth will continue throughout the 2nd half of the year, although British tourists are still the largest share of the Cypriot tourist market and with the current “cost of living” crisis taking hold in the UK, this may have a knock on effect as many people have to forego much needed holidays as they look to make savings.
In June, the break down of the top nationalities visiting Cyprus was 41,8% British, Israel were 2nd with 7.3%, Poland had 5.8%, Germany 5.6%, Sweden 5% and Greece 3.9%.
It’s always nice to know that Cyprus still continues to be a fond favourite of holiday makers and that the sun, sea, fabulous food, culture and locals keep people coming back time and time again.
