NICOSIA, August 11. /TASS/. Cyprus' tourism industry has been hurt by hostilities in the Middle East, as the island has seen a marked decrease in tourist flows, Marios Poliviou, chairman of the regional branch of the Cyprus Hoteliers Association (Pasyxe) in the province of Larnaca, told the Cyprus News Agency.
"Uncertainty remains in the tourism market," he admitted. He said that hotel occupancy in this province in the south and southeast of the island, fell by 15% in July compared to the same period last year. The figures for the first third of August are within similar limits: the number of booked rooms in hotels in the Larnaca region amounted to 75% of the maximum occupancy compared to 90% last year.
Poliviou said that Israelis account for the largest share of the visitors to the province, followed by the British, Germans, Poles and Greeks. The aggravation of the situation in the region in the first half of this year led to a reduction in flights between Cyprus and Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, which could not but affect the tourist flow from this country. He said that it was only in the second half of July that the number of flights from Israel to Larnaca International Airport finally reached last year's level of 25 flights per day.
Poliviou added that the expectations of the province's hoteliers for the current month remain modest. At the same time, he noted the importance of the cooperation agreements between the hotels of Larnaca and the tour operators TUI UK and Jet2, expressing his conviction that they would "significantly help" the resort industry of this Cypriot region. He also expressed hope for a significant increase in the influx of tourists in 2027.
Before the pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, Russians ranked second after the British by the number of tourists visiting the Republic of Cyprus, and formed one fifth of the total tourist flow to the Greek south of the island. However, Cyprus’ joining the EU anti-Russian sanctions after the start of its conflict in Ukraine, including the closure of the island's airspace for Russian aircraft from the end of February 2022, and, as a result, the inclusion of Cyprus in the list of countries unfriendly to Russia completely changed the geographical configuration of the Cyprus tourist map.
Although anti-Russian sanctions persist, Cypriots are making considerable efforts to ensure that an increasing number of Russians have additional incentives to spend their holidays on the island. As a result, local media recorded an increase in the number of tourists from Russia to Cyprus both last and this year.