Cyprus tourism sector sets records

In 2018, Cypriot tourism had something to be proud of. According to statistics, the island was visited by 3.9 million people. This is the largest number of visitors in the history of the country. A year earlier, this figure was about 3.6 million people, that is, 7.8% less. 33.7% of the tourists arriving in Cyprus are British citizens.

Interestingly, guests from Great Britain visiting Cyprus decreased in number, and in 2014 their number dropped to a record low — 872 thousand people. But the following year, the British began to return more often, and now the number of British visitors corresponds to the levels of 2005–2006, when Cyprus proved to be a particularly popular holiday choice.

Visitors from Russia are second in this ranking, equating to 783,631 people or 19.9% of the total number of tourists. Since 2005, the percentage of Russian citizens has steadily grown and sometimes reaches 40% of the total number of visitors to the island. But in 2018, the number of visitors from the Russian Federation compared with the previous year decreased by 5%.

Visitors from Israel, who were third in the list of popular visitors, also decreased in number. In 2018, 232,561 tourists from Israel visited the island, which is around 5.9% of the total number of visitors. Previously, their number grew steadily: from 31,000 in 2009 to 262,000 in 2017.

Visitors from Germany rank fourth in the list, accounting for around 4.8% of visitors. For several years now, the number of Germans planning to visit Cyprus has hardly changed. If in 2005, 183,000 German citizens came here, then last year it was 189,200. But the number of Polish and Ukrainian tourists sharply increased. The increase was respectively 58% and 44.5%. The good growth was demonstrated by the Scandinavian countries:

• Finland — + 26.5%;
• Denmark — + 23.1%;
• Sweden — + 12.5;
• Norway — + 1.7%.

Google also confirms an increase in interest in holidays in Cyprus. In 2017, the number of requests relating to the island increased by 60%, and Cyprus is now in seventh place in terms of popularity. Most of all they are interested in Internet users from the UK, Russia, Israel and Germany, that is, you can see the correspondence between the number of searches from these countries and the number of tourists coming from them. 47% of requests are devoted to beaches, 35% — to local culture.

In 2019, the Cyprus Ministry of Tourism began its work, headed by Savvas Perdios. The official had previously worked in the hotel business, and, according to him, he perfectly understands how important it is to establish effective cooperation between all participants in the tourist market. Perdios noted that the structure he manages will try to shape positive impressions of Cyprus among the guests of the island. In particular, much attention will be paid to the development of gastronomic tourism. This is the global trend of recent years, but today Cyprus has little to offer to tourists who want to get closer to the national cuisine.