June arrivals up 14%
Tourist arrivals reached 472,450 in June, compared to 413,114 in the same month last year, recording an increase of 14.4%, according to the monthly Passengers Survey. June had the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the specific month.
For the first half of 2017 tourist arrivals totalled 1,463,206, compared to 1,255,240 in the corresponding period of 2016, an increase of 16.6% and outpacing the total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the first six months of the year.
The statistical service Cystat said that tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom increased by 1.2% in June compared to the year earlier, while an increase of 2.1% was recorded for tourists from Russia. Increases were also recorded from other important tourist markets, such as Israel (+88.7%) and Sweden (+25.4%). Contrary to that, a decrease of 27.5% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Ukraine.
The U.K. and Russia constituted the main sources of tourism for Cyprus for June, with shares of 31.9% and 27.5%, respectively, while arrivals from Israel accounted for 5.9% and from Sweden 4.5% of total arrivals.
For 86.2% of arrivals, the purpose of their trip in June was holidays, for 10.3% it was visit to friends and relatives, and for 3.5% business.
Most of the tourists belonged to the age group of 20-44 years.
The previous month had also seen record arrivals, with data for May showing a 14.7% rise to 418,732, compared to 364,943 in May 2016.
The January-May period saw total arrivals at 842,126, up 17.6% from the same period in 2016, and once again a record high, making it the best five month period ever, probably due to the Easter break, according to Cystat. Arrivals from the U.K. were up 19.5% and from Russia up 0.3%, with increases also recorded from Germany (+54.9%) and Israel (+92.9%). Arrivals from Greece recorded a decrease of 6.4%.
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation said that the June arrivals were the second best month ever, with July 2016 recording the highest number of arrivals of 482,000.