August tourist arrivals are expected to exceed the last year's August arrivals a FINMIN official told StockWatch on Friday. Meanwhile, preliminary data for July arrivals show that they might be close to last year's reversing the sharp decline of the first six months of the year.
The upward trend of the past few months raises hopes that this year’s losses in tourist arrivals will not exceed -5%, while the losses in tourist revenues are still uncertain, due to the low tourist packages offered by hotel owners. Tourist arrivals for the first half of 2003 dropped by 12.3%, whereas revenues fell by 17.1%.
FinMin Vs STEK
Finance Ministry’s forecasts on tourist arrivals are significantly different compared to those of the Hoteliers’ Association, STEK, which released on Tuesday a gloomy study on hotel reservations. Commenting on STEK’s forecasts, Mr. Charalambous admitted that the drop in reservations is higher than the drop by arrival figures, due to the increased number of new hotel units and due to the increasing number of tourists who stay with friends or relatives, or in at apartments they own.
According to CYSTAT data, the number of tourist beds in the past two years has increased by 10.7% to 94,466 (December 2002) from 85,303 in December 2000. It is noted that 2672 beds were under construction in the last quarter of 2002.
Tourists who stayed in hotels constituted 89.3% of the total tourist arrivals in 2001, but dropped to 86.9% in 2002. The percentage of visitors hosted by friends or relatives or those who stayed in self-owned houses rose from 7.6% to 9.2% and 2.3% to 3.2% respectively.
The upward trend of the past few months raises hopes that this year’s losses in tourist arrivals will not exceed -5%, while the losses in tourist revenues are still uncertain, due to the low tourist packages offered by hotel owners. Tourist arrivals for the first half of 2003 dropped by 12.3%, whereas revenues fell by 17.1%.
FinMin Vs STEK
Finance Ministry’s forecasts on tourist arrivals are significantly different compared to those of the Hoteliers’ Association, STEK, which released on Tuesday a gloomy study on hotel reservations. Commenting on STEK’s forecasts, Mr. Charalambous admitted that the drop in reservations is higher than the drop by arrival figures, due to the increased number of new hotel units and due to the increasing number of tourists who stay with friends or relatives, or in at apartments they own.
According to CYSTAT data, the number of tourist beds in the past two years has increased by 10.7% to 94,466 (December 2002) from 85,303 in December 2000. It is noted that 2672 beds were under construction in the last quarter of 2002.
Tourists who stayed in hotels constituted 89.3% of the total tourist arrivals in 2001, but dropped to 86.9% in 2002. The percentage of visitors hosted by friends or relatives or those who stayed in self-owned houses rose from 7.6% to 9.2% and 2.3% to 3.2% respectively.
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