Citing official data and world tourism trends, Nasos Hadjigeorgiou, executive director of the Paphos Tourism Development Agency (Etap) said: “Unfortunately Paphos and Cyprus in many tourism source countries are not in ’fashion’ nor among the first choices of travelers.”

This is was supported by the low dynamic Cyprus had this year, the abundance of special offers by most hotels, the moderate occupancies, the ups and downs of arrivals and the reduction in tourism revenue, he said.

Hadjigeorgiou gave several reasons for the disappointing performance of the industry this year.  In many cases the access to Cyprus was not good, Cyprus, promotion abroad was inadequate and ineffective, while development of the product was one-dimensional.

Fierce competition, good weather across Europe, uncertainty over Brexit, all contributed to raising serious concerns about tourism not only 2019 but for the following years, he said.

After three record years, culminating with four million visitors in 2018, arrival numbers in 2019 have been on the decline.

The latest figures showed that arrivals in June dropped 6.6% year-on-year as fewer Greeks, Brits and Germans visited the island.

Tourist arrivals were also down 7% in the first six months of the year.

Source: Cyprus Mail