You are here

Perdios: Tourist arrivals to reach 45% of pre-Covid levels

16/11/2021 09:26

The tourist arrivals so far are satisfactory given the continued disruptions in travelling due to the Covid pandemic, Cyprus Deputy Minister for Tourism Savvas Perdios has said, noting that arrivals for the period of January – October will amount to 45% of tourist arrivals of 2019 a record breaking year.

The results are considered satisfactory as Cyprus has a stricter protocol compared with Cyprus’ peers and Cyprus is included in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) red list.

As regards, the October arrivals, Perdios said they are expected to reach 70% of the arrivals of the respective month of 2019 but stressed that per capita expenditure in 2021 has risen €810 from €678 in 2019. Therefore, the rise in revenue will exceed the arrivals which is long-standing targe for the Deputy Minister he added.

Perdios added that the tourism sector is expected to continue recovering in 2022 without providing certain projections, but noted that global tourism is not expect to reach the pre-covid levels until 2024.

“The aim is two-fold, that is to go better than this year and to approach the levels of 2019 as much as possible, he said.

Perdios presented the Deputy Ministry’s budget for 2022 to the parliamentary committee of Finance and Budgetary Affairs. The budget amounts to €53.7 million compared to the revised budget for 2021 totaling €45.7 million.

He pointed out that 40% of the budget will be spent for digital marketing, which will be strengthened, noting that the Deputy Ministry will spend €5 million over digital marketing all year around.