The good numbers registered in 2022 in terms of tourists’ arrivals are proof that Cyprus is on the way towards dependency from traditional markets such as Russia and the UK.
And that several years of market research and targeting alternative countries has borne fruit, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism said in a written statement sent to parliament this week.
The House Finance Committee is currently debating the 2023 state budget.
Recording the state of play of the under-implementation National Tourism Strategy, the Deputy Ministry highlighted that dependency to these two markets was almost 50% of overall arrivals.
However, since the implementation of the Strategy 70% of available airline seats are from countries outside of Russia and the UK. And 80% of the Treasury’s available funds for outreach is now spent on developing new markets.
The ongoing war in Ukraine resulted in the loss of around 800,000 arrivals from Russia, the second largest market for Cyprus after the UK.
Throughout the first eight months of 2022, arrivals from France doubled compared with 2019.
At the same time, arrivals from Germany increased by 26 per cent, from Denmark by 70 per cent, from Italy by 52 per cent and from Austria by 57 per cent.
