As of March 15, entry was only allowed for Cyprus residents while tourists were banned, as part of the measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

A ban on commercial flights has also been activated since March 21 and expected to remain until the airports open in mid-June.

Revenue from tourism reached €25.6 million in March 2020 compared to €96.6 million in the same month of 2019.

For the three months, January-March 2020 revenue from tourism is estimated at €115.3 million compared to €188.6 million same period of 2019, recording a decrease of 38.9%.

Expenditure per person for March was €461.71 down from €568.19 in the same month of the previous year, recording a decrease of 18.7%.

The expenditure per person/per day for March 2020 recorded an annual decrease of 15.7% (from €68.46 to €57.71).

A decline of 3.6% was also recorded in the average length of stay, from 8.3 days in March 2019 to 8.0 days in March 2020.

Expenditure per person for the first three months reached €467.58 compared to €527.64 in the same period last year, recording a decrease of 11.4%.

Spending per person/per day for the first three months January dipped 4.6% (from €62.81 to €59.95).

As a result of the lockdown measures, the official Passengers Survey was only conducted until mid-March 2020.

Due to the small sample size that was collected during this period, it was not possible to produce a more detailed analysis of the expenditure of tourists by country of residence.

Revenue from tourism generated €2.68 billion in 2019, down 1% from the previous year, bolstered by record arrivals of 3.97 million.

A COVID-19-ravaged 2020 will paint a completely different picture for a sector that contributes around 15% GDP to the Cyprus economy.

Source: Financial Mirror