Citing the results of the Passengers Survey, CyStat said Cyprus tourist arrivals had broken a new record in December, and for the year.

Total arrivals of tourists in December reached 110,330, up 3.5% over the 106,563 of the corresponding month the previous year. This was highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the specific month.

For the period of January – December 2019 arrivals of tourists totaled 3.976.777 compared to 3.938.625 in the corresponding period of 2018, recording an increase of 1.0% and outnumbering the total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during a year, CyStat said.

Analysis of changes Tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom increased by 4.2% in December 2019 compared to December 2018 while an increase of 51.0% was recorded for tourists from Israel. There was a 33.4% drop in arrivals from Greece, while the number of visitors from Russia slipped by 1.7%.

Main countries The United Kingdom constitutes the main source of tourism for Cyprus for December 2019, with a proportion of 30.3% while arrivals from Israel comprise 12.8% of total arrivals, from Greece 9.5% and from Russia 8.9%.

As regards tourist arrivals for the year, the UK remained steadily Cyprus’ biggest market with 33.5%. Russia was second with 19.7% and Israel third with 7.4%. The fourth biggest market for 2019 was Greece with 4.3%.

Purpose of visit For a percentage of 53.3% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in December 2019 was holidays, for 32.3% visit to friends and relatives and for 14.2% business.

Source: In-Cyprus