Tourism in August up 40 per cent on last year

Tourist arrivals in August saw a 40.2 per cent increase, reaching 451,133, compared to the 321,858 in August 2021, the Cyprus statistical service said on Monday.

From January to August 2022 incoming tourists totaled 2,127,172 compared to 960,150 for the corresponding period in 2021, 424,850 in 2020 and 2,735,839 in 2019.

The United Kingdom was the main source of arrivals for August accounting for 41.2 per cent (186,002) of total arrivals.

Following the UK is Israel at 9.6 per cent (43,326), Poland at 5.2 per cent (23,557), Germany at 4.7 per cent (21,306), Sweden 4.2 per cent (18,758), Greece 3.1 per cent (13,991) and France 3 per cent (13,365).

The majority (85.5 per cent) of trips in August were leisure tourism, with 12.4 per cent visiting friends and relatives and 2.1 per cent on business.

Notably, from August 2020 to August 2022 – business travel to Cyprus decreased by 2 per cent.