The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) said its initial projections “for yet another excellent year in tourism, registering upward trends, seem to be verified.”

Tourist arrivals reached 534,847 in August 2018 compared to 523,651 in August 2017, an increase of 2.1%.

According to the Statistical Service “August 2018 had the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the specific month.”

During the first eight months of this year tourist arrivals amounted to 2,719,622 compared to 2,517,887 in the same period of 2017, an increase of 8% and outnumbering the total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the first eight months of the year.

Tourist arrivals from Sweden increased by 13.1% in August compared to the previous year while an increase of 9.1% was recorded in tourists arriving from Greece.

A drop of 0.9% was however recorded in tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom, while those from Russia fell by 5.2%, Israel by 20.7% and Germany 9.4%.

But the UK remained the main source of tourists for Cyprus in August 2018, accounting for 34.4%. Russia follows with a 21.2% share of total arrivals, while Israel has 7.8% and Sweden 3.9%.

According to a Passengers Survey 88.3% of people arrived in Cyprus for holidays this August, 9.7% came to visit friends and family while 1.9% were here for business.

According to the CTO in the first eight months of the year there has been an increase of 16% from four northern European countries: Poland (52.9%), the Ukraine (47.3%), Switzerland (29.5%) and Ireland (205%).

Source: Cyprus Mail