Stay away Russian tourists triggers dip in June 2019 arrivals

As Cyprus tries to match 2018's record of nearly 4 million tourist arrivals, a fall from second largest market Russia has seen overall numbers drop in 2019.

In June tourist arrivals fell 0.3% to 509,662 from 511,073 in the same month of 2018, according to official data. It’s the second consecutive month arrivals have been in negative territory.

In the six-month period January to June tourist arrivals also declined 0.9% to 1.63 million from 1.64 million in the same period of 2018.

In June tourist arrivals from Russia decreased 5.1% on a year ago, while visitors from Sweden dipped by 12.5%.

Luckily arrivals were about the same level as June 2018 due to UK tourists – the island’s biggest market – marginally increasing 0.1%, while arrivals from Israel soared 39.7%.

The UK constituted the main source of tourists for Cyprus, accounting for 32.5% of total arrivals, followed by Russia with 23.0%, Israel with 6.5% and Sweden with 4.4%.

Source: Financial Mirror