Our term ends this year and along with it the plans that began in 2014 supported by the lowest budget in the Organisation’s history.

Carrying out these plans has led to the continuous breaking of Cyprus tourism records and encouraging the development of all productive sectors.

Decisively and with determination, the Organisation has put the tourism sector in the position it deserves, away from the verge of bankruptcy. The government meanwhile, perhaps more than any other in the past, has recognised the great contribution tourism makes to the financial development and welfare of all its citizens.

It has also been proven that the tourism sector was the most powerful weapon for overcoming the economic crisis of 2013 and allaying the concerns of the Troika.

Challenges

• We faced many and significant challenges over he past years, beyond the global financial crisis, such as:
• The closure of Cyprus Airways and Transaero with a loss of some 1.5 million seats
• The geopolitical developments in our ‘neighbourhood’ along with Turkish threats and harassment and travel safety concerns
• The sanctions against the Russian Federation
• Brexit
• The devaluation of currencies against the euro

Achievements (through admirable cooperation, joint, hard efforts and ongoing government support and trust)

In spite of the huge challenges, together, we have made huge progress on Cyprus between 2014 and today, which have brought about a rocketing increase in the filling of tourist accommodation, investments and new work places.

Specifically, for the period 2014 – 2017, visitor arrivals grew from 2.44 million in 2014 to 3.65 million in 2017, marking a total increase of 50 percent (or average yearly increase of 14 percent).

Based on recent data provided by World Tourism Organisation, this increase was far greater than the increases recorded in other destinations.

Also of significance, is the fact that the increase in arrivals for the period 2014 – 2017 came from both traditional source markets as well as new ones.
For example, visitors from the UK rose by a total of 44 percent, those from Russia by 29 percent, those from Germany by 119 percent, as well as visitors from Israel rising by 281 percent, those from Lebanon by 78 percent and those from Poland by 95 percent.

When it comes to seasonality over the past four years, tourist arrivals roses from 300 thousand during the winter period of 2013 – 2014 to 613 thousand for the 2017 – 2018 season, a total increase of 104 percent or average yearly increase of 20 percent.

Alternative forms of tourism made a significant contribution to these results and these are being built on with steady steps forward.
The increase continued in the first months of this year with arrivals for the period January – May reaching 1,135,000 thousand compared to 990,000 thousand in the same period of 2017, an increase of 14.5 percent.