Tourist arrivals in Cyprus for the period of January - August 2023 amounted to 2,65 million recording an increase of 24.5% compared with the respective period of last year.
According to data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat) tourist arrivals in August amounted to 511,387, down by 2.30% from July 2023, while compared with August of last year arrivals marked an increase of 13.4%.
Despite losing the Russian market since 2022, due to the war in Ukraine and the ensuing Western sanctions against Russia, the arrivals of the period amounted to 97% of the respective period of 2019, Cyprus' all-time tourist record. Russia was traditionally Cyprus' second largest tourist market following the United Kingdom.
Arrivals from the UK were the main source of tourism for August 2023, with a share of 35.9% (183,642) of total arrivals, followed by Israel with 14.9% (76,130), Poland with 5.8% (29,495), Germany with 4.5% (23,178) and Sweden with 3.6% (18,218).
Cyprus residents' travel abroad up by 30.2%
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Furthermore, according to Cystat, a total number of 199,920 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in August 2023 compared to 153,563 in the corresponding month last year, recording an increase of 30,2%.
Greece topped the list of destinations with a share of 40,4% or 80,713, followed by the United Kingdom with 5.7% or 11,329 people, Italy with 5.3% or 10,516, France with 3.7% or 7,389 and Russia with 3.2% or 6,490 arrivals.
Source: Cyprus News Agency