While tourism is the main focus for Cyprus’ economy Angelos Loizos, chairman, Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), revealed the touristic flows of 2017.
With the recent publication of the tourist results for December 2017, it has been successfully completed statistically, being the most successful year in the history of Cypriot tourism with the record of 3,652,000 travellers arriving and the sector to accelerate the sprouting of the Cypriot economy.
Cyprus is undoubtedly one of the most tourist-driven countries in the world with regard to the population-tourists, with an approximate number of arrivals of around 4.3 travellers per inhabitant (the average of Europe at 1.7 for 2016) and having one of the highest rates of tourism's contribution to GDP, as well as employment in the sector.
Cyprus tourism, running from 2014, has achieved impressive results, especially in the last two years. In 2017, the island has attracted 465,000 additional travellers compared to 2016, and almost one million additional than in 2015.
Coordinated efforts, targeted CTO promotions and other actions […] to strengthen the months outside the tourist season and to strengthen the tourist season, have been fruitful. Noteworthy, for the five-month winter season (November-March), saw a rise of 75 percent over the four-year period. The so-called shoulder months, like April and October, have also recorded impressive numbers, surpassing the number of tourist arrivals, the historically higher summer months of previous periods.
It is of utmost importance that tourism in Cyprus, which had reached the stage of maturity as a destination, far exceeded the performance of other competing tourist countries […] in 2016, while world tourism recorded a rise of four percent and tourism in Europe 2.5 percent, Cyprus reached 20 percent. In 2017, with global tourism at seven percent and the European at eight percent, Cyprus achieved an increase of 15 percent.
[…] The total market share of the two markets has fallen from 61 percent in 2016 to 57 percent in 2017. […] A key criterion for tourism success was the systematic recovery of the trustworthiness of Cyprus tourism vis-à-vis valuable strategic partners abroad, such as Travel Organizers and Airline Companies, through seriously upgraded relationships and expanded, mutually beneficial strategic partnerships. […] It would be a mistake not to give too much weight to the success of professionalism and the provision of quality services in the private sector in the areas of accommodation, food etc. […] At the same time, there has been an emerging dynamic of the sharing economy and similar leased services, which must be carefully addressed and regulated. In addition to the remarkable results, Cyprus tourism has received particularly high ratings on the basis of recent visitors' satisfaction surveys.
