According to CYSTAT data released on Friday, tourist revenues in May 2005 showed an increase of 5.9% to £105.4 million against £99.5 million in the corresponding month of 2004. They are actually the highest revenues since May 2002, when they stood at £119.5 million.

This increase moderated losses for January-May to 0.6%. In the first five months of 2005, tourist revenues reached £259.1 million against £260.8 million in the corresponding period of 2004. Tourist arrivals for the same period recorded an encouraging increase of 5.6% to 736.265 against 697.053.

“We insist that 2005 will be a tough year for tourism. We expect that tourist arrivals for the year will increase by 5% or even more and we hope that revenues will stabilize at the same level as last year”, CTO Chairman, Fotis Fotiou told StockWatch.

Tourist revenues are one sixth of the Cyprus GDP.

“The improvement in revenues needs time and will be achieved via the introduction of new products and projects, such as the golf courts”, Mr. Fotiou added.

According to the CTO data from its offices in London, British reservations for July-September show an increase of 3-4%. The AC Nielsen figures, however, show stabilization in reservations (0%).

Mr. Fotiou believes that German tourist arrivals will increase by 20% and admitted that there are still problems with the visas as far as Russia is concerned. As for the Chinese, after the incident with the Chinese tour operators at the Larnaca Airport, Mr. Fotiou will try to laugh away the negative impressions at a private meeting later today.