Total number of travellers in 2020 a fifth of previous year

The total number of travellers that arrived in 2020 plunged to one fifth of total arrivals the previous year as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the sector, figures published by CyStat on Monday show.

According to the statistics service, only 30,099 travellers arrived in Cyprus in December 2020 – an 89 per cent slump on the 273,714 arrivals in December 2019.

The decrease is mainly attributed to the decrease in the arrivals of tourists (91.2 per cent) as well as to the decrease in the return of residents of Cyprus (87.6 per cent).

CyStat said that as regards departures, these were down 88.6 per cent in December 2020 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

For the 12 month period of January to December 2020, arrivals of travellers totaled 1,161,079 compared to 5,777,029 in the corresponding period of 2019, recording a decrease of 79.9 per cent per cent.

Departures in the same period were down an annual 80.1 per cent.

The statistical service noted that for the period of March 15 to June 8 last year there was an entry ban on several categories of people, including tourists, as part of the measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.