Another historic record for Cypriot tourism was achieved in 2025, with tourist arrivals breaking the 4.5 million barrier for the first time and the United Kingdom remaining the main market by a huge margin from the now second-place Israel.
At the same time, last year saw notable increases from a series of promising markets that are gradually becoming key players in tourism.
However, based on data maintained by CySTAT, in 2025 the largest percentage increase was recorded by the Israeli market at 38.4%, while arrivals from Serbia (+34.7%) and Russia (+31%) also recorded a significant increase.
The results of 2025
More specifically, and according to data recently published by CySTAT, tourist arrivals in December amounted to 156,959 compared to 133,063 in December 2024, recording an increase of 18.0%.
For the period January-December 2025 , tourist arrivals amounted to 4,534,073 compared to 4,040,200 in the corresponding period of 2024, marking an increase of 12.2%.
For December, arrivals from Israel were the main source of tourism, accounting for 19.1% (30,020) of total arrivals, arrivals from the United Kingdom 19.0% (29,826), arrivals from Poland 11.3% (17,779), arrivals from Germany 7.4% (11,569) and arrivals from Greece 7.3% (11,413).
The main players in tourism
As for 2025 as a whole, the main source of tourism was the United Kingdom with arrivals reaching 1,440,003 compared to 1,373,634 in 2024, showing an increase of 4.8%.
In second place, but at a long distance, was Israel with arrivals reaching 588,833 compared to 425,606 in 2024, recording a significant increase of 38.4%.
The top three is completed by Poland, with arrivals reaching 373,808 compared to 337,139 in 2024, marking an increase of 10.9%.
Germany was established in fourth place, with arrivals reaching 277,905 compared to 228,355 in 2024, showing an increase of 21.7%, while Greece was in fifth place with arrivals limited to 176,534 compared to 183,816 in 2025, showing a decrease of 4.1%.
Beyond that, Sweden was in sixth place, with arrivals reaching 153,224 compared to 148,995 in 2024, recording an increase of 2.8%. Romania was in seventh place with 119,471 arrivals compared to 95,314 in 2024, recording an increase of 25.3%.
One place below, specifically in eighth place, was Austria with arrivals reaching 92,584 compared to 75,261 in 2024, showing an increase of 23%.
France was in ninth place with 85,567 arrivals compared to 92,818 in 2024, showing a decrease of 8.5%, while the top ten was completed by Switzerland with 72,888 arrivals compared to 73,946 in 2024, recording a small decrease of 1.4%.
Promising markets
In addition to the above markets, in 2025, notable tourist arrivals were recorded from other markets, such as the Netherlands, which was limited to 11th place with just 2,000 arrivals, the USA, Russia, and Canada.
Specifically, and based on CySTAT data, tourist arrivals from the Netherlands in 2025 amounted to 70,174 compared to 53,604 in 2024, showing an increase of 30.9%.
Denmark followed closely behind, with arrivals reaching 69,926 compared to 63,972 in 2024, showing an increase of 9.3%, while arrivals from Norway amounted to 63,870 compared to 65,929 in 2024 (-3.1%).
As for the USA, arrivals amounted to 63,234 compared to 50,512 in 2024, showing an increase of 25.2%, while arrivals from Russia amounted to 63,778 compared to 48,705 in 2024, recording an increase of 31%.
In addition to the aforementioned, we also had increased tourist arrivals from Hungary (61,584 compared to 59,071 in 2024-an increase of 4.3%), Serbia (53,853 compared to 39,969 in 2024-an increase of 34.7%) and Slovakia (51,869 compared to 50,567 in 2024-an increase of 2.6%).
Very good performances were also recorded by the Czech Republic (42,829 compared to 34,322 in 2024-an increase of 24.8%), Finland (40,870 compared to 44,878 in 2024-an 8.9% decrease), Lebanon (40,290 compared to 41,658 in 2024-a 3.3% decrease), Lithuania (34,446 compared to 31,189 in 2024-an increase of 10.4%) and the United Arab Emirates (33,035 compared to 29,111 in 2024-a 13.5% increase).
Regarding other markets, tourist arrivals from Bulgaria amounted to 29,023 compared to 29,049 in 2024 (a negligible decrease), from Belgium to 25,319 (26,319 in 2024), from Australia to 24,167 (20,371 in 2024), from Spain to 17,693 (15,523 in 2024) and from Canada to 14,573 (11,704 in 2024 - an increase of 24.5%).
(Source: InBusinessNews)
