Loizou said the losses from the Russian market would be more than offset by the increase from traditional markets such as the UK and Germany. Russia was estimated to be down 25%. In fact, flights from the UK had recently increased, two to Larnaca and one to Paphos, due to instability in other countries in the region, Loizou said.

“Arrivals from the traditional countries show that they will surely offset the decline of the Russian market,” he said, adding that the drop in tourist arrivals from Russia would hold below 20% compared to the initial 25% forecast.

Increases from the traditional markets would total around 17-18% overall, the CTO boss said.

“This prediction may result in an increase of 5% to 6% for the year,” he added.

On revenue, he said it was not something dependent on the number of arrivals but on the quality of services offered. “A tourist is happy to spend more but it depends on us how we can sell our services.”

Loizou said tourism now accounts for around 12% of GDP directly and contributes around 25% to the economy indirectly.

He said the troika technocrats had been given all the information they needed to analyse but he said they wanted to examine more specialized issues concerning source markets.

“We are discussing the framework of everything to do with tourism including modernization and legislative changes, and sustainability for the future,” he concluded.

Source: Cyprus Mail