According to CYSTAT data released on Tuesday, tourist revenues in June recorded an increase of 3.7% to £140.1 million against £135.1 million in the corresponding month of 2004. Tourist arrivals in July showed an increase of 10.8%. The gap between the increase in arrivals and revenues is the largest in the past three months.

For January-July, 2005, tourist revenues increased 1.5% to £512.5 million against £505.2 million in the corresponding period of 2004.

Not full satisfaction

Tourist organizations say that the increase in tourist revenues is satisfactory, although it is “marginal” since they are not comparable with the tourist revenues 5 years ago.

PASYXE General Manager, Zacharias Ioannides expressed his disappointment for the huge gap compared to 2001.

Mr. Ioannides said that the revenues for January-July 2001 are lower by 27% compared to this year’s revenues, while the average expenditure per tourist stood at £514 in 2001 against £413 in 2005.

STEK General Manager, Fedias Karis, on the other hand, expressed his satisfaction for the acceleration in the growth rate of tourist arrivals. “However, the next two months will determine the final result for the full year”, he added.

“This year was certainly better that 2004 but we are still worried about the gap in the increase between the revenues and the arrivals”, Mr. Karis concluded.