Tourist arrivals in October rose an annual 0.7% to total 436,509 — a new record for the month — the Cyprus Statistical Service said on Monday citing the results of the Passengers Survey.

This is the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus for the specific month.

For the period of January – October 2019 arrivals of tourists totalled 3.697.055 compared to 3.673.377 in the corresponding period of 2018, recording an increase of 0.6% and outnumbering total arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during the first ten months of the year.

Tourist arrivals from Russia increased by 13.1% in October 2019 compared to October 2018 while arrivals from Israel jumped 91.1%. In contrast, tourist arrivals from the UK fell 8% and those from Germany were down 14.7%.

Main countries

The United Kingdom remained the main source of tourism for Cyprus for October 2019, accounting for 31.9% of the total, while arrivals from Russia comprise 21.6% of total arrivals, from Israel 6.3% and from Germany 5.0%.

Purpose of visit

For a percentage of 85.2% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in October 2019 was holidays, for 8.6% visit to friends and relatives and for 6.2% business.