Tourism revenue plunges 73.5% in March

Cyprus saw its income from tourism nosedived by 73.5% in March as it enforced a commercial flight ban and tightened COVID-19 lockdown, according to official data released Wednesday.

As of March 15, entry was only allowed for Cyprus residents while tourists were banned, as part of the measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

A ban on commercial flights has also been activated since March 21 and expected to remain until the airports open in mid-June.

Revenue from tourism reached EUR 25.6 mln in March 2020 compared to EUR 96.6 mln in the same month of 2019.

For the three months January – March 2020 revenue from tourism is estimated at EUR 115.3 mln compared to EUR 188.6 mln same period of 2019, recording a decrease of 38.9%.

Expenditure per person for March was EUR 461.71 down from EUR 568.19 in the same month of the previous year, recording a decrease of 18.7%.

The expenditure per person/per day for March 2020 recorded an annual decrease of 15.7% (from EUR 68.46 to

EUR 57.71).

A decline of 3.6% was also recorded in the average length of stay, from 8.3 days in March 2019 to 8.0 days in March 2020.

Expenditure per person for the first three months reached EUR 467.58 compared to EUR 527.64 in the same period last year, recording a decrease of 11.4%.

Spending per person/per day for the first three months January dipped 4.6% (from EUR 62.81 to EUR 59.95).

As a result of the lockdown measures the Passengers Survey was only conducted until mid-March 2020.