Cyprus Tourism Falls for Fourth Straight Month

Cyprus’s plans to lengthen the tourist season have yet to be fulfilled, as the goldilocks month of October (neither too hot nor to cold) saw a fourth consecutive decline in tourist arrivals.

On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 267,866 in October 2008 compared to 275,103 in October 2007, recording a decrease of 2.6 percent. The UK market, which was fallen 3 percent so far this year, remained weak. Arrivals from the UK fell by 4.9 percent to 142,868, from 150,301 in October 2007.

There was also a big decline in arrivals from Sweden, which had earlier bucked the trend and been a buoyant market. Swedish arrivals fell 20.2 percent to 14,795 compared to 18,541 in October 2007.

But the decline was not only in non-eurozone countries. Germany saw a 5.7 percent decrease (16,498 compared to 17,490) and Ireland saw a decline of 31.6 percent to 2,854.

The figures were released only hours after Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides said 2009 would be a difficult year for tourism since the World Tourism Organization was predicting a 9.0 per cent drop in global tourism for next year due to the global economic crisis.