Tourism arrivals could see a 5 per cent rise by the end of the year, Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) chief Angelos Loizou said after a meeting with troika representatives on Tuesday, the Cyprus News Agency reported.
Loizou said the losses from the Russian market would be more than offset by the increase from traditional markets such as the UK and Germany. Russia was estimated to be down 25 per cent.
In fact, flights from the UK had recently increased, two to Larnaca and one to Paphos, due to instability in other countries in the region, Loizou said.
“Arrivals from the traditional countries show that they will surely offset the decline of the Russian market,” he said, adding that the drop in tourist arrivals from Russia would hold below 20 per cent compared to the initial 25 per cent forecastIncreases from the traditional markets would total around 17-18 per cent overall, the CTO boss said.
“This prediction may result in an increase of 5 per cent to 6 per cent for the year,” he added.
Loizou said tourism now accounts for around 12 per cent of GDP directly and contributes around 25 per cent to the economy indirectly.
He said the troika technocrats had been given all the information they needed to analyse but he said they wanted to examine more specialized issues concerning source markets.
“We are discussing the framework of everything to do with tourism including modernization and legislative changes, and sustainability for the future,” he concluded.