According to CYSTAT data released on Friday, tourist arrivals in October 2006 dropped 3.2% (-9.2 thousand) to 283,046 against 292,273 in the corresponding month of 2005.

This slump was mostly linked to the British and Irish tourist arrivals, which dropped 4% (6.6 thousand) and 53% (6.2 thousand) to 159,205 and 5,457 against 165,809 and 11,621 in October 2005 respectively. Similarly, French arrivals tumbled 53.1% (3.5 thousand) to 3,086 compared to 6,577 last year and Finnish arrivals fell by 17.8% (1.1 thousand).

On the other hand, tourist arrivals from Sweden and Norway showed an increase of 15.8% (1.9 thousand) and 22.8% (1.2 thousand) respectively, followed by Greece and Russia with an increase of 12.7% (1.2 thousand) and 9.3% (1 thousand).

January-October

In January-October 2006, tourist arrivals dropped 2.4% to 2,234,219 compared to 2,289,584 in the corresponding period of 2005.

Tough year

According to CTO, 2006 has been a tough year for tourism in Cyprus. The fact that the tourist revenues are going up, however, is positive. It is worth noting that tourist revenues in January-October 2006 increased by 3.2%.