More than seventy percent of the tourists who participated in a survey commissioned by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation said they were completely satisfied with their stay in Cyprus between July and October 2017, the CTO said on Tuesday.

The survey, presented today in Nicosia, reported that the sunny weather, the sea, the tranquillity and attractiveness of the environment, the local hospitality and the services offered are the main reasons why foreigners choose Cyprus for their holidays.

At the same time, the number of those who cited security matters for choosing Cyprus has increased.

“The reasons cited by tourists for choosing Cyprus for their holidays during the particular period are mainly the sunny weather and the sea, the tranquility and attractiveness of the environment, the hospitality of the residents and the services offered” the CTO said in a press release.

It added that a “significant” percentage of 27% said that they chose Cyprus because they had visited the island again in the past.

Also, 83.7% of the respondents said that Cyprus was their first choice to spend their vacation. “It is important to note that in the case of travellers from Russia and Israel, the percentage of those who said that Cyprus was not their first choice for their holidays stood at 36.0% and 18.5% respectively,” said CTO.

The survey also revealed that the percentage of those who cited security issues as the main reason for choosing Cyprus is increased, especially among tourists whose first choice was Spain (25%) or Turkey (21%).

The majority of those surveyed appeared to be satisfied to a great extent with their stay in Cyprus, with 71.3% saying they were completely satisfied on a scale from 1-5 and 23.3% rating the overall experience with 4, while only 0.5% gave a rate of 1 or 2.

A large percentage of 87.9% gave a rate of 8, 9 or 10 on a scale from 1 to 10 on whether they would recommend Cyprus to others as a tourist destination. This percentage was particularly increased among British tourists (93.4%) and tourists from Russia (89.8%), but appeared to be lower in the case of Greek tourists (76.1%) and those from Israel (81.0%).

Of those surveyed, 92.5% answered that they would “probably” or “definitely” visit the island again for holidays in the next three or four years.