Filenews 15 July 2025 - by Angelos Angelodimou
Three markets cover more than 50% of arrivals in our country, according to the data presented by PASYXE in the context of the annual General Assembly, which took place last week. According to the data of the Statistical Service, presented by the Association, for 2024 the United Kingdom, Israel and Poland had an arrival rate of more than 50%, with the rest of the countries limited to much lower percentages.
Arrivals and Germany's goal
Specifically, the United Kingdom with an arrival rate of 34% for 2024, Israel with 11% and Poland with 8%, are the three countries, which together collected 53% of total arrivals last year. Speaking at the General Assembly, the President of PASYXE, Thanos Michaelides, noted that Poland should be an example to be emulated in terms of opening new markets and what these can contribute to Cypriot tourism.
Mr. Michaelides made special reference to the case of Germany. In particular, referring to the largest market in Europe, the president of PASYXE noted that according to data, in 2023, 77% of the German population travelled at least once for holidays abroad, a percentage that corresponds to 50 million people, out of a total population of 83.28 million. It is worth noting that, in the United Kingdom, the corresponding percentage was only 42%, in a population of 68.35 million. According to 2024 data, Cyprus welcomed 228,000 tourists from Germany, which ranks it as the fourth largest tourism market for our country. These numbers correspond to only 6% of our total tourism. We do not overlook the amount of investment that will be needed for such an opening, however, if we operate effectively, we can achieve a market similar to that of the United Kingdom, Thanos Michaelides pointed out.
Labour force
The data presented in relation to the part concerning the workforce of the "hospitality and tourism" sector are also interesting. Specifically, in 2024, 8% of all employees in Cyprus, i.e. a total of 40,592 people, were employed in this sector. Of these, 21,607, or 53%, were Cypriots. 9,626, or 24%, were EU citizens and 23% or 9,360 were third-country nationals. According to last year's estimates by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), by 2034, jobs in the hospitality and tourism industry will increase by 25,200, i.e. they will reach 19% of the total workforce.
Recalling that in his speech at the General Assembly of PASYXE, Mr. Michaelides noted that an issue of major importance for the tourism industry remains human resources. Difficulties in finding suitable and sufficient human resources remain, he pointed out, and stressed that a possible approach could be the example of Norway, where rapid tourism development revealed serious gaps in skilled personnel, as young people avoided the relevant professions considering them precarious. Those in charge had to convince both young people and their parents that the industry offers prospects. They updated the promotional messages, showcasing leading personalities in the field and created modern education and training programs. In addition, Norway, through the Integration Act, promotes the integration of employees aged 55-65 in the hotel industry, mainly in areas such as customer service and administrative positions. In this way, human resources are strengthened with experience and quality characteristics, while at the same time these people are offered the opportunity for a second career in a dynamically evolving field.
Contribution to GDP
And we come to the point where the industry's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product is concerned. According to the statistical data cited by PASYXE, the sector had a gross contribution to GDP of €4.6 billion in 2024, which translates to 18.3%. As noted, compared to 2023, there was an increase of 4.9%, which was the second largest increase achieved among all sectors. It is noted that 18.3% is the second highest percentage, after the financial services sector with a percentage of 19.5% and €4.9 billion.
