With three visitors per inhabitant, Cyprus is among the most visited countries in the world, a new study by online magazine TravelMag has found.
Numbers for visitor arrivals used for the survey were taken from a report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
With 6,600 visitors per 1,000 residents arriving in Iceland each year, that country emerged on top. Malta was in second place with 5,300 visitors, while the Bahamas completed the top three spots with 3,800 visitors.
Cyprus is number seven, with 3,000 tourists for every 1,000 residents. It is higher ranked than Greece which had 2,400 and is in 11th place.
The UK has seen a big increase in tourism thanks to the pound sterling’s drop in value after Brexit, but still only sees 569 visitors per 1,000 inhabitants.
At the other end of the spectrum Somalia, Yemen and Libya are the least visited counties, with less than one visitor per 1,000 residents. While no UNWTO data was available for these destinations, tourist arrivals are close to zero according to various independent sources.
Total international tourist arrivals in 2017 have gone up 6.8 per cent from the year before, well above the 3.8 per cent forecast for the period from 2010 to 2020. More than half the arrivals, 51 per cent, travel to Europe.
In absolute numbers, France was the top destination worldwide, with 86.9 million visitors, followed by Spain (81.8 million).
China is the top spender, followed by the USA and Germany.
In 2017, 2 per cent of tourists travelled by train, 4 per cent by ship, 37 per cent by road and 57 per cent by air.
Meanwhile, tourist arrivals in Cyprus reached a record high this August and in the first eight months of this year, data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service, on Monday, show.
Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has expressed its satisfaction in a press release, noting that its initial projections “for yet another excellent year in tourism, registering upward trends, seem to be verified.”
On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 534,847 in August 2018 compared to 523,651 in August 2017, recording an increase of 2.1%.
According to the Statistical Service “August 2018 had the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the specific month.”
During the first eight months of this year tourist arrivals came to 2,719,.622 compared to 2,517,887 in the same period of 2017, recording an increase of 8% and outnumbering the total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the first eight months of the year.
Tourist arrivals from Sweden increased by 13.1% in August 2018 compared to August 2017 while an increase of 9.1% was recorded in tourists arriving from Greece.
A drop of 0.9% was recorded however in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom, tourist arrivals from Russia fell by 5.2%, visitors from Israel dropped by 20.7% and a decrease of 9.4% was recorded from Germany.
The United Kingdom constitutes the main source of tourism for Cyprus in August 2018, with a proportion of 34.4%. Russia follows with a 21.2% share of total arrivals, Israel has 7.8% of the share and Sweden 3.9%.
According to the Passengers Survey 88.3% of persons arrived in Cyprus for holidays this August, 9.7% came to visit friends and family while 1.9% were here for business.
In its press release CTO comments on the changes recorded in arrivals from countries which have been key sources for Cyprus’ tourism in the first eight months of the year, noting that there has been an increase of 16% from four northern European countries.
It adds that an increase was also observed in the first eight months in arrivals from Poland (52.9%), the Ukraine (47.3%), Switzerland (29.5%) and Ireland (205%).
It is further noted that apart from the two key markets, that of the UK and Russia, the rest of the countries have increased their share to 46% up from 42% in the same period of 2017, a development which the CTO considers a positive one.