Tourist arrivals in March mark first annual reduction in four years

Tourist arrivals in March 2019 declined by 11.5% on an annual basis, marking the first reduction since June 2015.
 
According to data released today by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat), tourist arrivals in March 2019 amounted to 169,934 compared with 192,090 in March 2018. The sizeable reduction may be associated with the large increase recorded in arrivals in March last year which amounted to 36.4% year on year.
 
For the period of January – March 2019, tourist arrivals amounted to 357,475 compared with 369,438 in the respective period of 2018, marking a reduction of 3.2%.
Arrivals from Cyprus’ main tourist markets declined in March with the exception of Russia, where an increase of 10.1% was recorded.
 
According to Cystat, arrivals from the UK, Cyprus No 1 tourist market, fell by 6.9% in March 2019 compared with the respective period of 2018, arrivals from Greece declined by 8.5%, and by 36.6% from Germany, while arrivals from Israel declined by 40.1%, Cystat added.