“In January to August 2016, tourist arrivals rose to 2,196,017 which is 19% more compared to the respective period of 2015, Cystat said in a statement on its website on Monday. July was also a record month.

The rise in tourist arrivals in August resulted from a 37% annual increase in visitors from Russia, Cyprus’ second major market, to 122,843 and a 9.9% increase from the UK to 172,236, which is the largest source of incoming tourism, Cystat said. Arrivals from Israel and Greece rose 61% and 17% to 27,048 and 10,453 respectively, while the number of German tourists fell in August 6.1% to 13,144.

Tourism makes up directly or indirectly roughly a quarter of Cyprus’ economy which is expected to expand 2.7% in 2016 compared to 1.6% last year.

In a separate statement, Cystat said the number of Cyprus residents who travelled abroad in August rose 7.3% to 161,135 compared to August 2015.

Source: Cyprus Mail