A record number of people visited the Christmas villages set up around the island to promote Cyprus tourism, the deputy tourism minister said on Sunday.

Minister Costas Koumis told the CyBC that numbers had increased not only in terms of locals but overseas visitors too.

He said the Christmas village in Kalopanayiotis was a good example of this.

Kalopanayiotis community leader Lambros Lambrou said that visitation to the village was six times what is usually seen, while 40 per cent of those visiting were foreigners.

On more than one weekend in December so many people had piled in to the village the police had to implement traffic calming measures.

Christmas villages for this holiday season were set up in Agros, Dherynia, Fikardou, Kalopanayiotis, Kiti and Kyperounta in addition to Nicosia’s old town’s Laiki Yitonia. They opened at the end of November and will close on Monday.