Tourist arrivals exceed 3 million in January – November 2022

Tourist arrivals exceeded 3 million for the period of January – November 2022, surpassing the arrivals of full year 2021 despite the loss of the Russian market due the war in Ukraine and the ensuing western sanctions against Russia.

According to data released by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat), arrivals for the eleven months of 2022 tourists totaled 3,091,039 compared to 1,840,003 in the corresponding period of 2021 and 621.927 in the period of January – November 2020, with 2020 and 2021 marked by travel restrictions due to Covid-19.

Furthermore, the arrivals in January – November 2022 amounted to 80% of the corresponding figure of the eleven months of 2019, which constitutes Cyprus’ historic record-year in tourist arrivals. Cyprus managed to offset the loss of the Russian market, the island’s traditionally second largest tourist source, due to increased arrivals from EU countries, namely, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Hungary and France many of which have set historic records in arrivals.

Moreover, the arrivals for the period of January – November 2022 marked an increase of 60% compared with full year of 2021, as the previous year continued to mark problems in traveling due to COVID.

In November 2022 arrivals amounted to 149,857 in November 2022 up by 0.6% compared to 148.973 in November 2021.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for November 2022, with a share of 25.5% (38,265) of total arrivals, followed by Israel with 11.6% (17,380), Greece with 10.1% (15,190), Germany with 10.1% (15,065) and Poland with 9.2% (13,759).