According to the Paphos regional board of tourism encouraging figures from 2016 have shown a steady increase in visitor numbers from Israel and this is something that will now be further developed.

“For Paphos, this market has grown steadily upward in recent years and Paphos operators consider that Israel is among the countries that canbe developed further in 2017 and the coming years, helping to address the problems of seasonality,” said a spokesman for the Paphos regional board of tourism.

As part of the 2017 plan, the Paphos regional board of tourism, along with other industry partners, will attend the 23rd annual International Mediterranean Tourism Market-IMTM 2017 - in Tel Aviv on February 7-8, 2017.

IMTM is the official and only professional exhibition for the tourism trade market in Israel. It is marketed as: ‘The meeting place and trendsetter for the global and local tourist industry.’

The Israeli market offers an opportunity for further growth due to the commencement of Ryanair flights from Tel Aviv to Paphos, said the spokesman. Daily flights are due to get underway in March, according to the airline.

“In view of the commencement of daily flights from Tel Aviv to Paphos, we are looking to further develop weddings, short trips and sports tourism,” he said.

He added that in 2016, figures from the Israeli market shot up and reached 148,000 arrivals ranking it fourth in arrivals in the Cypriot market, an increase of 50% compared with 2015.

According to IMTM 2017 – per capita, Israelis travel abroad more than any other nation in the world.

They said Israelis make four million high-budget trips per year, averaging four to ten-day stays.

According to the local tourism board of Paphos, in 2016, the market for outbound tourism from Israel stood at 6.2 million departures by air, and 2.4 million of those departures take place between November-March.

Source: Cyprus Mail