Tourist arrivals recorded a significant increase of 8.5% in July and 6.5% in the first seven months of the year, figures released by the Statistical Service on Thursday showed.
On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 414,527 in July 2015 compared to 381,955 in the same month last year, recording an increase of 8.5%, the Statistical Service said.
An increase of 22.5% was recorded in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom, from 127,152 in July 2014 to 155,813 in July 2015.
Arrivals from Israel recorded an immense increase of 65%, from 10,311 to 17,015, whereas arrivals from Greece increased 55.8%, from 10,127 to 15,780 this year.
On the other hand a decrease of 17.6% was recorded in tourist arrivals from Russia, which dropped to 96,085 in July 2015 from 116,582 in July 2014, 1.5% decrease from Sweden (17,181 compared to 17,446) and 12.8% decrease from Norway (9.618 compared to 11.029 last year).
For the period January – July 2015 arrivals of tourists totalled 1.450.427 compared to 1.361.794 in the corresponding period of 2014, recording an increase of 6.5%.