July Tourist Arrivals Up 3.4% y/y

The number of tourists arriving on the island rose 3.4 percent to 371,453 compared to July 2011, said the Cyprus Statistical Service (CYSTAT).

There was an increase of 40 percent in tourists from Russia (from 56.361 in July 2011 to 79.278 in July 2012), a 9.3% increase from Norway (from 12.856 to 14.056) and a 13.5% increase from Germany (from 11.266 to 12.785 this year).

On the other hand, a decrease of 9,1% in tourist arrivals was recorded from the United Kingdom (141.782 in July 2012 compared to 156.051 in July 2011), 5,1% decrease from Sweden (18.405 compared to 19.385 last year) and 3,4% decrease from Greece (15.355 compared to 15.889 last year), said CYSTAT.

Tourism is a bright spot in an overall cloudy outlook for the economy which has been in recession for the last year. Still, it failed to stop the slide in GDP in the second quarter, which was down 2.4 percent over the same period in 2011.

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