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A Record Year for Hotels in Cyprus

The Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) has published the island’s results for 2017. According to it, Cyprus enjoyed a record year, reaching the growth in the number of tourist arrivals by 14.6% compared to 2016. During 12 months of 2017, the number of foreign tourist arrivals exceeded 3.6 million, which is significantly higher than in 2016 (3.1 million).

Tourists from the UK make up a significant share of foreign visitors as more than one million arrivals (1,253,839) were from this country. That is 8.6% higher than in 2016. As of December 2017, the UK and Greece were the main source countries for Cyprus – their portion in the total number of international arrivals is 28.5% and 14.1% respectively. The third and fourth places are occupied by Russia and Israel – they provided 12.4% and 10.2% of total arrivals.

In December 2017, the number of tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom added 8.0% to 28,218, which is significantly higher than the result of December 2016 – 26,120. The number of tourist arrivals from Greece added 6.9%. Arrivals from Russia were mostly flat and added only 1%, but tourists from Israel were significantly more interested in having a vacation on Cyprus in December – the increase in tourist arrivals from this country estimated 38.7%. Tourist arrivals from Lebanon declined slightly, by 1.4%.

What are the main purposes of visiting Cyprus? The CTO has an answer to this question as well. Based on December 2017 data, more than a half of respondents (51.4%) stated “holiday” as their primary purpose of the trip. More than a third of foreign visitors, 36.2%, arrived in order to visit their friends and family members. Finally, 12.4% of respondents visited Cyprus for business purposes. Women visited Cyprus slightly more often than men (53.3% vs 46.7%). Also, most of the visitors are young – their age ranges from 20 to 44.

Not surprisingly, July was the most profitable month for Cyprus hotels and tourist infrastructure as the total number of foreign arrivals reached 531,000 (482,132 in July 2016). In August, there were slightly fewer tourist arrivals – 523,651. However, more visitors from the UK visited Cyprus in August. In July, the number of tourist arrivals from this country was 176,880, and in August it was 185,831. The CTO is delighted with the results and hopes that this year even more visitors will enjoy a vacation on Cyprus. The island really has much to offer – 64 magnificent Blue Flag beaches, delicious cuisine, cultural heritage, and national hospitality.

10.02.2018

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