Press Releases

Tourist Arrivals +33,3% and Returns of Residents of Cyprus -6,7%

Tourist Arrivals

The arrivals of tourists reached 420.076 in May 2023 compared to 315.018 in May 2022, recording an increase of 33,3%.

For the period of January – May 2023, arrivals of tourists totaled 1.156.705 compared to 849.058 in the corresponding period of 2022, recording an increase of 36,2%.

 
 Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for May 2023, with a share of 36,6% (153.797) of total arrivals, followed by Israel with 8,9% (37.442), Poland with 7,3% (30.835), Germany with 6,2% (25.916) and Sweden with 5,2% (21.837).                                                                                             

For a percentage of 82,1% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in May 2023 was holidays, for 11,3% visit to friends and relatives and for 6,5% business. Respectively, in May 2022, 79,5% of tourists visited Cyprus for holidays, 12,5% visited friends or relatives and 7,9% visited Cyprus for business reasons (Table 1).

Table 1

Returns of Residents of Cyprus

A total number of 126.583 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in May 2023 compared to 135.661 in the corresponding month last year, recording a decrease of 6,7%.

The main countries from which residents of Cyprus returned in May 2023 were Greece with a share of 31,4% (39.738), the United Kingdom with 10,1% (12.739), Italy with 5,6% (7.098) and Germany with 4,0% (5.095).

The purpose of travel for the residents of Cyprus in May 2023 was mainly holidays, with a percentage of 64,8%, whilst business reasons held a percentage of 28,5%, studies 3,6% and other reasons 3,1%.

Methodological notes

Definitions

Tourists – Visitors who stay for at least one night in Cyprus.

Tourist arrivals – The term refers to the number of trips and not to the number of persons. This differs in the sense that one person can take more than one trips during the reference period.

Residents of Cyprus - This category includes persons who have resided in Cyprus for at least 12 months or who have come to Cyprus with the intention of staying for at least 12 months, prior to their travel.

Source of Data and Coverage

The data are obtained from the Passengers Survey which is carried out at the points of arrival in Larnaka and Pafos airports. Additionally, data are also collected from administrative sources, such as the monthly arrivals from ports.

The data covers all persons who pass through passport control at the ports and airports in the Government controlled area of Cyprus. It does not include travelers who arrive and depart illegally via ports and airports in the occupied part of Cyprus.

The weighting was conducted based on the data sent to the Statistical Service by the Civil Aviation Department and from the ship manifests, as well as on the data sent by the Analysis and Statistics Office of the Cyprus Police.

For more information, interested parties can visit the CYSTAT Portal, subtheme Tourism, CYSTAT-DB (Online Database), Predefined Tables (Excel) and Methodological Information.

Interested parties can contact Ms Lucy Panayidou by calling +35722602152 or e-mailing at lpanagidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy

(AP/ECHR)