Tourist arrivals in September 2022 increased by 21.9 per cent compared to last year’s corresponding period, with the majority of tourists being from the United Kingdom, according to a report released on Monday by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat).

According to the report, tourist arrivals in September 2022 amounted to 413,382, compared to 339,242 in September 2021, marking an increase of 21.9 per cent.

For the period between January and September 2022, tourist arrivals amounted to 2,540,554, compared to 1,299,392 in the corresponding period of 2021.

Moreover, there were 512,184 tourist arrivals in the period between January and September 2020, while there were 3,260,546 tourist arrivals in the corresponding period of 2019.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for Cyprus in September 2022, representing 41.1 per cent (169,799) of total arrivals.

Following were arrivals from Israel at 8.5 per cent (35,013), Poland at 5.5 per cent (22,922), Germany at 5.4 per cent (22,244), Greece at 4.5 per cent (18,802) and arrivals from Sweden at 4.5 per cent (18,463).

In terms of the purpose of travel for September 2022, 86.1 per cent of arrivals said that they came to Cyprus for their vacation, 9.1 per cent said that they were visiting friends or relatives, while 4.7 per cent of international visitors said that they came to Cyprus for business.

Comparatively, for September 2021, 86.6 per cent of arrivals visited Cyprus for holidays, 9.3 per cent to visit friends or relatives and 4.1 per cent for business reasons.