Data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service on Monday, show that tourist arrivals in August were up by 14.2%, while tourist arrivals in first 8 months of the year were up by 14.7%.
Both outcomes constitute historic records as Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) notes in a press release, noting that it will now focus on further improving the winter season and on seasonality issues.
According to the Statistical Service on the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 523,651 in August 2017 compared to 458,645 in August 2016, recording an increase of 14.2%.
“August 2017 had the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the specific month,” the Statistical Service says in a press release.
For the period of January – August 2017 arrivals of tourists were 2,517,887 compared to 2,196,017 in the same period of the previous year, recording an increase of 14.7%.
Tourist arrivals in the first eight months of this year outnumber total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the first eight months of the year.
Tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom were up by 7.9% in August compared to August 2016, while an increase of 95.7% was recorded from tourists coming to Cyprus from Israel.
Inflow of tourist was up also from other important tourist markets, such as Germany (54.6%) and Sweden (4.2%).
On the other hand, a drop of 2.5% in tourist arrivals from Russia was recorded in August.
The United Kingdom and Russia constitute the main sources of tourism for Cyprus for August 2017, holding a share of 35.5% and 23.9% respectively of the tourist market, while arrivals from Israel comprise 10.1% and from Germany 3.9% of total arrivals
Holidays was the purpose of 90.4% of total travellers to Cyprus this August, while 8.3% of respondents said they were visiting friends and relatives and 1.3% for business.
The CTO refers to “record tourist arrivals” and points out in its press release that the August increase is the 26th in monthly increase in tourist arrivals.
The last time a drop was recorded was in June 2015, the CTO press release says.
With the most successful period in the history of Cyprus tourism nearing completion, the CTO will now focus even more its attention to the coming winter period and will work to improve seasonality, an area in which notable progress has been recorded in recent years, the press release adds.