Tourist arrivals recorded a sharp drop of 98.2% on an annual basis this June, due to the coronavirus pandemic, data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service on Friday show.
In particular, according to the official data, tourist arrivals reached 9,119 in June this year compared to 509,662 in June 2019, recording a decrease of 98.2%.
During the period of January – June 2020, arrivals of tourists were 255,675 compared to 1,631,023 in the corresponding period of 2019, recording a decrease of 84.3%.
CyStat notes that in March 2020, an entry ban in the Republic was imposed on several categories of persons, including tourists, up to 8/6/2020, as part of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Cyprus.
Tourist arrivals from Greece fell by 75.8% in June 2020 compared to June 2019, while a drop of 93.1% was also recorded in tourists from Germany, 93.0% decrease from Switzerland and 91.1% from Austria.
For 42.6% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in June 2020 was holidays, for 28% a visit to friends and relatives and 29.4% came to Cyprus on business.
Cyprus residents travelling abroad record annual drop of 91.5% in June
———–
According to CyStat 11,726 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in June 2020, compared to 137,992 in the corresponding month last year, recording a decrease of 91.5%.
The main countries from which the residents of Cyprus returned in June 2020, were Greece, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Russia and Germany.
Compared to June 2019, the returns of residents from Greece decreased by 88.8%, returns from the United Kingdom decreased by 87.8%, from Bulgaria by 82.3%, from Russia by 93.9% and from Germany by 90.2%.
The Statistical Service notes that the statistics for June 2020 were obtained from processing the data of the electronic platform “Cyprus Flight Pass”.
Due to the small number of arrivals combined with issues that arose from the self-declared information provided by the passengers, it was not possible to provide a more extensive analysis, it says
As the Cyprus flight pass can only be submitted within 24 hours of flying,
your stats for the last few months may be correct. But, they cannot be used to
extrapolate towards future trade. The Irish Government has just opened up
A green air bridge to Cyprus with no quarantine, which should bring up tourism numbers.
As Cyprus and Greece are the only traditional Sun holidays now available to the Irish,
And the Irish weather has been abysmal, hopefully the tourism numbers will swell in the
coming months. My wife and I are looking forward to our Paphos holiday in September.