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An influx of Russian and British tourists has helped Cyprus break more records for the number of arrivals during April, official data indicated on Thursday.
Arrivals of tourists increased 9.7% in April reaching 314,143 compared to 286,331 in the same month last year - it was the first time the 300,000 mark had been smashed in April.
"April 2018 had the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during that specific month," said the Cyprus statistical service.
The total number of arrivals for the first four months of the year also broke all previous records.
Tourists from the UK (110,689) - the island's largest market - increased 4.1%
For the four-month period, January – April 2018 arrivals of tourists totalled 683,581, a spike of 19.5% from the 572,024 in the same period of 2017.
Welcoming the figures the Cyprus Tourism Organisation said in a statement: "There are major challenges ahead of tourism in Cyprus, such as heightened competition, the geopolitical developments in our region, the impending exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the economic situation in Russia."
It said keeping tourism on top "required vigilance by all stakeholders in the tourism industry, so that the state's efforts, through incentives and strategic partnerships, produce the best results".
Tourists from the UK (110,689) - the island's largest market - increased 4.1% from April 2017, while an increase of 4.3% was recorded in visitors from Russia (49,040).
Increases were also recorded from other key tourist markets, such as Greece up 25.1% and Sweden rose 42.9%.
Contrary to that, a decrease was witnessed in arrivals from Germany (17,5%) and a 21.4% decline from Israel.
Britain constitutes the main source of tourism for Cyprus with a market share of 35.2%, followed by Russia with 15.6% share, Greece is third with 6.5% and then Germany on 6.3%.
The largest percentage increase recorded in April was in visitors from Finland which shot up by 75.5%.
The eastern Mediterranean island has benefited from its reputation as a regional safe haven as unrest has hit the tourism sectors of its traditional competitors Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.
A record 3.65 million tourists enjoyed a Cyprus holiday last year, spending an unprecedented 2.6 billion euros.
The tourism boom helped Cyprus return to growth following a €10-billion (RM49 billion) bailout to rescue its crumbling economy and insolvent banks in March 2013.
Income from tourism now accounts for about 15% of the country’s gross domestic product and is credited with underpinning a quick recovery.
