Cyprus tourism revenue rises sharply, nears pre-pandemic levels

Cyprus’ tourism revenue rose by €80 million in September 2022, reflecting an increase of 30 per cent compared to the same month of 2021, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat).

In addition, tourism revenue during the first nine months of 2022 increased by 88 per cent year-on-year, reflecting a rise of €920.2 million.

Furthermore, according to the report, tourism revenues in September 2022 reached €348.3 million, compared to €268.2 million recorded in September 2021, marking an increase of 29.9 per cent.

For the period between January and September 2022, tourism revenues are estimated to have reached €1.96 billion, compared to €1.04 billion in the corresponding period of 2021.

As a further comparison, tourism revenue between January and September 2020, the first year of the pandemic, reached a paltry €298.9 million.

What is more, tourism revenue continues to edge closer to pre-pandemic levels, with the revenue generated in the first nine months of 2022 coming at €268.6 million shy of the figure recorded in 2019, a bumper year for Cypriot tourism.

This represents a 12 per cent difference between the two years, with tourism revenue in 2019 amounting to an impressive €2.23 billion.

Meanwhile, the report also revealed that while tourist arrivals in September 2022 increased by 21.9 per cent, reaching 413,382 visitors, compared to 339,242 in September of the previous year, the average length of stay decreased to 9.8 days, compared to 10.9 days previously.

However, in what will be seen as a step in the right direction in the industry’s efforts to improve the quality of the tourists Cyprus attracts, the average spend per person rose to €842.49 in September 2022, compared to €790.63 last September.

Further to the above, the average spend per person on a daily basis rose to €85.97, compared to €72.53 during the corresponding period of the previous year.