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Revenues in Cyprus‘s vital tourism sector plunged 12.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, signalling a tough year ahead amid the global recession, official figures showed on Friday.
Accrording to AFP, income from tourism, which forms 12 percent of GDP in the government controlled southern two-thirds of the island, plunged to an estimated 124.8 million euros in the three months to March from 143.2 million euros a year ago. In March alone the drop accelerated to 14.8 percent as revenue from holidaymakers sank to 57.4 million euros from 67.3 million in the same month of 2008.
Tourism income for last year as a whole fell 3.5 percent to 1.79 billion euros from 1.85 billion euros in 2007. Average daily spending by tourists in March was 65.8 euros and the average stay was 9.6 days. The biggest spenders were Israeli visitors, splashing out 146 euros a day while Danes were the most frugal, spending only 42 euros a day on average. The disappointing revenue figures are coupled with a 15.2 percent decrease in tourist arrivals for the first three months. The government projects a 10 percent drop in tourism arrivals this year.
Bumper spending by holidaymakers helped the Mediterranean island resort achieve GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2007, easing to 3.7 percent last year. The finance ministry has further trimmed its GDP growth estimate to no more than 2 percent for 2009 mainly due to about the tourism sector.
The lion’s share of visitors holidaying on Cyprus come from fellow European Union countries, especially from recession-hit Britain, Greece and Germany. Tourist numbers from Britain -the island’s largest market- are down by over 20 percent.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
