The latest results of a Europol study on Cyprus tourism has revealed that the as much 95% of the revenue earned from travel comes from foreign visitors.
It is therefore no wonder that the island nation’s tourism sector has been completely battered as the Covid-19 pandemic has almost halted international travel. According to various hoteliers on the island, the worst-case scenario of only a fraction of non-resident arrivals have already rung true.
This has been a sharp contrast from 2019, which had welcomed over 4 million tourists. While a target of meeting at least 20% of those figures have been set this year, fulfilling them is difficult at best, seeing as Israel, Russia and the UK – Cyprus’ biggest sources of visitors, have either been excluded or shrouded in complicated safety-related paperwork.
To meet these numbers, the government is currently making an effort to encourage as much local tourism as possible. A number of schemes have been introduced to this end.
Cyprus’ position comes next only to Malta and Crete, both of which attribute 96% of their revenue to non-resident tourists. Other major destinations that follow the same trend include the Austrian mountainous regions of Vorarlberg and Tirol, as well as the cities of Budapest, Brussels, Vienna and Prague.