Europe

Cyrus Recorded a Robust Tourism Year in 2022, Despite COVID-19 & War in Ukraine

Cyprus welcomed more than three million tourists between January and November of 2022, exceeding the number of arrivals recorded throughout 2021.

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According to data by the Statistical Service of Cyprus, Cystat, a total of 3.09 million tourists arrived in the country during the eleven months of 2022, which is nearly 68 per cent more than 1.8 million tourists recorded in 2021, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Tourism experienced an even more robust boost compared to 2020 levels, when 621,927 arrivals were recorded, which is related to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Another strong hit besides COVID-19 was expected to hit the Cypriot tourism sector in 2022, due to the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed against Russia. However, the country successfully managed the decrease in Russian tourists, as increased arrivals from EU countries like Poland, Denmark, Germany, France and Hungary, were recorded. Moreover, tourists from European countries have marked historic records in arrivals to Cyprus this year.

Furthermore, the arrivals recorded in January – November 2022 have reached 80 per cent of the levels recorded during the same period in 2019, when no COVID-19 restrictions were imposed, and Cyprus witnessed a historic record year in tourist arrivals.

In comparison to 2021, during which the world dealt with limited travelling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism arrivals were 60 per cent up. However, the arrivals in November alone reached 149,857 – by 0.6 per cent compared to 148,973 in 2021.

The majority of tourists recorded in 2022 came from the United Kingdom, representing 38,265 tourists or 25.5 per cent of all arrivals. Israel followed second with 17,380 tourists (11.6 per cent of the total tourists), in addition to Greece (15190), Germany (15,065) and Poland (13,759).

The tourism industry throughout all European countries has experienced a boost in 2022, with a total of 879 million trips being recorded.

As the European Office for Statistics, Eurostat reveals, the number of trips for tourism purposes increased by 23 per cent compared to 2020, when 713 million trips were made.

“In 2021, trips to other EU countries accounted for 12 per cent of all tourism trips (compared with 11 per cent in 2020 and 20 per cent in 2019). On the other hand, the number of trips with a destination outside the EU represented only three per cent of all tourism trips (compared with three per cent in 2020 and eight per cent in 2019),” Eurostat explains.

The same source notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the pattern of tourism for many travellers as last year and in 2020, Europeans spent about 85 per cent of their trips within their home countries, compared to 73 per cent of domestic trips recorded in 2019.

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