in-cyprus 2 September 2019 - Edited by Annie Charalambous
Total arrivals of travellers to Cyprus have increased by ten times between 1980 and 2018, jumping from a total of 528,288 to 5,535,797.
At the same time, departures from Cyprus rose to 5,521,515 in 2018 from 526,586 in 1980. As for “other travellers” (migrants, temporary workers), that number was 3,230 in 1980 and rocketed to 60,032 in 2018. In other words, it increased by 18 times.
Meanwhile, daily visitors at ports were 50,045 and only 4,845 at airports back in 1980. In 1995, the number increased to 60,000 which was about the same as the daily visitors of this year’s last season.
There was also a significant increase in the number of Cypriots traveling abroad in 2018 compared to 1980. Specifically, Cypriot travellers in 1980 were only 121,638 compared to1,445,646 in 2018. In other words, the number has increased by 12 times.
The first ever time the number of Cypriots travelling abroad had exceeded 1,000,000 was in 2007, reaching a total of 1,080,512.
Since 2007, that number has not fallen below one million even during the dire years of the Mediterranean island’s financial crisis.
