Flight bans, banking sanctions
Beside sparkling Mediterranean waters at the Cypriot resort town of Ayia Napa, the bars are bouncing with foam dance parties as tourist numbers rebound following two tough years of pandemic. One key nationality, however, is effectively missing - Russian visitors, as the once lucrative market has been hit by European Union sanctions imposed after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
"This year, we expected 800,000 Russian tourists," said Haris Loizides, head of the Cyprus Hotel Association.
The Russian market "was wiped out from one day to the next," said Christos Angelides, head of the Pancyprian Association of Hotel Managers. "Nobody was prepared for this huge change."
The key tourism sector, which had contributed 2.68bn euros (US$2.72bn) in 2019, 15 per cent of GDP, is still counting the cost of the disastrous years of COVID-19 travel chaos.
In 2019, before the start of the COVID19 pandemic, a fifth of tourists were Russian - 782,000 out of 3.9 million - making it the holiday island's second largest market after Britain.
Last year, despite tough COVID-19 travel restrictions, that share rose to more than 25 per cent, with arrivals from Russia totalling nearly 520,000 out of 1.93 million.
Operators had hoped this summer would see Russian numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.
Some 18,000 Russians are resident in Cyprus, many in the seaside town of Limassol - dubbed by some 'Moscow on the Med'.
With EU sanctions on Russia, however, continuing. and with no let-up in the bloodshed on Ukraine's battlefields, just 17,000 Russian tourists came to Cyprus between January and June.
"Our hotel is doing well, but others - who had 100 per cent Russian clientele - are not," said Angelides, who is also manager of the Napa Mermaid Hotel.
Nicosia and Moscow have close political and cultural ties, but when Russia sent troops into Ukraine, the Cypriot parliament unanimously passed a resolution condemning the invasion.
Cyprus, the EU's most easterly member, backed the bloc's actions on Moscow, including a flight ban and sanctions barring some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial system.
The tourism ministry says fewer Russian visitors could mean some US$600mn in potential lost earnings.
Overall, tourist arrivals in Cyprus are bouncing back, thanks to strong demand in other key markets following the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
From January to June, Cyprus recorded 1.2 million visitors, nearly five times the level last year, and the white sand beaches at Ayia Napa are crowded with sunseekers