According to CYSTAT data released on Thursday, tourist arrivals in October recorded an increase of 4.8% to 292.273 against 278,976 in October 2004. The Cyprus Tourism Organization anticipates that tourist arrivals in 2005 will show an increase of 8%.

This increase is attributable to the Irish market, since 11,621 Irish tourists visited the island in October against 5,522 in the corresponding month of 2004. The increased Irish arrivals are linked to the Cyprus-Ireland football match on October 8 in Nicosia.

Tourist arrivals from Russia and France also increased by 37.6% and 20.6% to 11,058 and 6,577 against 8,036 and 5,454 last year respectively.

On the other hand, Greek tourist arrivals dropped 17.7% to 9,429 against 11,458 in October 2004.

Similarly, tourist arrivals from the Netherlands recorded a drop of 13.6%.

January-October

In January-October 2005, tourist arrivals increased by 6.2% to 2,289,579 compared to 2,156,236 in the corresponding period of 2004.

Russian tourist arrivals for the same period showed an increase of 17.9% to 92,692 against 78,608 in 2004, while German arrivals recorded an increase of 14.4% to 163,297 compared to 139,075.

Tourist arrivals from the UK surged 2.1% to 1,299,217 against 1,236,266 in the corresponding period of 2004, while Greek arrivals fell 1.2% to 111,236 against 112,642 last year.