The Cyprus Tourism Industry

Built around unique and diverse experiences, Cyprus’ tourism sector has always been a major player for the country’ s economy, which is in itself experiencing healthy growth, outperforming forecasts and maintaining its solid outlook.

The tourism market is one of the largest economic sectors in Cyprus and has experienced substantial growth over the last five years with breaking records in both arrivals and revenues, steadily increasing in winter months (Nov-April) with 100% increase in tourism arrivals from 2014 to 2019.

The year 2019 recorded the highest numbers reaching a peak of 4 million of tourists from 2.4 million in 2014, accounting for 13,1% of nominal GDP.  Revenues grew to €2.68 billion in 2019, while the country was reported to have the largest growth in ground and port infrastructure in the worldwide travel and tourism index published by the World Economic Forum. According to latest estimates, the sector could contribute around 25% to the country’ s economy by 2030.

National Tourism Strategy 2030

Through a clearly-defined Vision and Strategy to launch the full rebranding of Cyprus and establish the island as a quality, all-year destination, tourism can strengthen its place and be one of the top economic performers by 2030, not only through direct revenues, but also through the major multiplier effects that tourism has on the local economy. The vision of the new Cyprus Tourism Strategy is to develop Cyprus in a sustainable way, which positively impacts our economy, society and the environment, improving seasonality, with the objective of reaching 39% of overnights during November-April and quadrupling overnight stays in the rural areas from 100,000 in 2018 to 400,000 by 2030.

The Tourism Strategy also aims at diversifying into other local and cultural experiences while attracting multi-million investment into large-scale infrastructure projects.

Efforts are focusing on diversifying, enriching and improving the quality of the touristic product and therefore, investment opportunities into thematic areas, such as luxury and lifestyle tourism, nautical tourism, cultural tourism, sports, conference, health and wellness, and agro-tourism.