Tourist arrivals exceed 1.6 million in first half of 2024

Tourist arrivals in Cyprus exceeded 1.65 million in the first half of 2024, up by an annual 2.4% with arrivals in June, the first summer month, rising by 5.5% compared with June 2023.

According to data released by CySTAT, the arrivals of tourists reached 482,261 in June 2024 compared to 456,985 in June 2023.

For the period of January – June 2024, tourist arrivals reached 1,652,475 compared to 1,613,690 in the corresponding period of 2023, recording an increase of 2.4%.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for June 2024, with a share of 35.6% (171,704) of total arrivals, followed by Israel with 10.7% (51,814), Poland with 7.5% (36,202), Sweden with 4.9% (23,639) and Germany with 4.5% (21,552).

Tourist arrivals from Israel as a percentage of total arrivals rose significantly compared with May’s share of 7.9%, whereas arrivals from UK, Poland remained broadly stable. The share or arrivals from Germany declined compared with May.

A total of 83.4% of visitors, stated that the purpose of their trip in June 2024 was holidays, for 10.5% visit to friends and relatives and for 5.9% business. Respectively, in June 2023, 81.7% of people who visited Cyprus were here on holiday, 12.6% visited friends or relatives and 5.5% visited Cyprus for business reasons, CySTAT added.

Residents’ trips abroad down by 1.3% in June

Furthermore, a total number of 136,739 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in June 2024 compared to 138,588 in the corresponding month last year, recording a decrease of 1.3%.

Greece topped the trip destinations with a share of 37.5% (51,260) of total returns, followed by the United Kingdom with 11.9% (16,311) and Italy with 4.9% (6,641), CySTAT said.

(Source: CNA)