Press Releases

Tourist Arrivals +18,5% and Returns of Residents of Cyprus +67,4%

Tourist Arrivals

The arrivals of tourists reached 342.736 in April 2023 compared to 289.335 in April 2022, recording an increase of 18,5%.

For the period of January – April 2023, arrivals of tourists totaled 736.629 compared to 534.040 in the corresponding period of 2022, recording an increase of 37,9%.

 
 
Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for April 2023, with a share of 36,3% (124.455) of total arrivals, followed by Israel with 9,9% (34.069), Poland and Germany with 6,7% (23.063 and 23.038 respectively) and Greece 6,2% (21.184).

For a percentage of 79,3% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in April 2023 was holidays, for 14,5% visit to friends and relatives and for 6,0% business. Respectively, in April 2022, 80,2% of tourists visited Cyprus for holidays, 14,6% visited friends or relatives and 5,2% visited Cyprus for business reasons (Table 1).

Table 1

Returns of Residents of Cyprus

A total number of 135.659 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in April 2023 compared to 81.062 in the corresponding month last year, recording an increase of 67,4%.

The main countries from which residents of Cyprus returned in April 2023 were Greece with a share of 34,0% (46.086), the United Kingdom with 8,5% (11.482), France with 4,2% (5.664), Italy with 3,7% (4.962) and Hungary with 3,6% (4.886).

The purpose of travel for the residents of Cyprus in April 2023 was mainly holidays, with a percentage of 70,7%, whilst business reasons held a percentage of 20,1%, studies 7,2% and other reasons 2,1%.

Methodological notes

Definitions

Tourists – Visitors who stay for at least one night in Cyprus.

Tourist arrivals – The term refers to the number of trips and not to the number of persons. This differs in the sense that one person can take more than one trips during the reference period.

Residents of Cyprus – This category includes persons who have resided in Cyprus for at least 12 months or who have come to Cyprus with the intention of staying for at least 12 months, prior to their travel.

Source of Data and Coverage

The data are obtained from the Passengers Survey which is carried out at the points of arrival in Larnaka and Pafos airports. Additionally, data are also collected from administrative sources, such as the monthly arrivals from ports.

The data covers all persons who pass through passport control at the ports and airports in the Government controlled area of Cyprus. It does not include travelers who arrive and depart illegally via ports and airports in the occupied part of Cyprus.

The weighting was conducted based on the data sent to the Statistical Service by the Civil Aviation Department and from the ship manifests, as well as on the data sent by the Analysis and Statistics Office of the Cyprus Police.

For more information:

CYSTAT Portal, subtheme Tourism

CYSTAT-DB (Online Database)

Predefined Tables (Excel)

Methodological Information

Contact

Lucy Panayidou: Tel.:+35722602152, E-mail: lpanagidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy

(MV/SCH)