Tourism stages comeback despite losses from Russian market

Tourist arrivals in Cyprus during May increased significantly compared to the same month of 2021, however, they were still lower compared to May 2019 and with obvious losses from the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

According to the Statistical Service of Cyprus, the arrivals of tourists reached 315,018 in May 2022 compared to 100,852 arrivals that were recorded in May 2021. However, these arrivals are still down by 119,560 compared to May 2019, which was the last May with no travel restrictions due to COVID-19. In May 2019, tourist arrivals had reached 434,578, of which 104,221 came from Russia and Ukraine.

On the contrary, arrivals from the United Kingdom have recovered and were the main source of tourism in Cyprus in May 2022, with a share of 40.1% (126,324) of total arrivals. In May 2019, arrivals from the United Kingdom reached 156,820. No other market seems to have a significant contribution to tourist arrivals, however, there was an increase in arrivals from Poland which had a share of 7.4% (23,197) of total arrivals, when in May 2019 the arrivals from the country had only reached 10,427.

In May 2022 arrivals from Israel were 6.9% (21,749) of total tourism, from Germany 6.5% (20,592), from Sweden 5.1% (15,943) and from Greece 4.4% (13,905).

For the period of January – May 2022, arrivals of tourists reached 849,058 compared to 156,825 in the corresponding period of 2021, 246,556 in the period of January – May 2020 and 1,121,361 in the period of January – May 2019.

For a percentage of 79.5% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in May 2022 was holidays, for 12.5% visiting friends and relatives and for 7.9% business. Respectively, in May 2021, 80.7% of tourists visited Cyprus for holidays, 9.8% visited friends or relatives and 9.4% visited Cyprus for business reasons.

Trips abroad at pre-pandemic levels in May

According to Statistical Service's data, a total number of 135,661 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in May 2022, compared to 23,251 in the corresponding month last year, recording an increase of 483.5%.

In particular, in May 2019, which was the last May with no travel restrictions due to COVID-19, the residents of Cyprus who traveled abroad reached 141,709

The main countries from which the residents of Cyprus returned in May 2022, were the United Kingdom with 25.3%, Greece with 25.0%, Germany with 4.7% and Italy with 4.6%.