This year, Cyprus expects to attract a record number of tourists and the tourist figures here mark an increase of nearly 5% over the last year, according to a tourism official who had released this statistic last week.
Angelos Loizou who is the chairman, Cyprus Tourism Organization said that in the year 2016, nearly 3.2 million vacationers had arrived in Cyprus that is actually a 17% rise from the same in the previous year. He added that three years ago, this country had ended up losing its potential tourists to nearby locales including Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Turkey.
He stated that collaborating with the tour operators to cater wisely to tourist preferences played a crucial role in bringing about a turnaround in this scenario and ushering in more tourists to Cyprus.
Loizou asserted that religious tourism as well as the concept of sports clubs training during the mild winter months and also several couples traveling for civil marriages have been leading to a boost in the tourism figures to this part of the world.
He also said that the tourism sector of the country directly as well as indirectly contributes to over 20% of the $18.5 billion to the economy of the country.
Furthermore, Angelos Loizou mentioned that the contribution of the industry to the gross domestic product this year is estimated to be around 22%.
The chief of CTO said that tourism was quite crucial in maneuvering an almost-bankrupt Cyprus out of a 2013 international bailout program. Loizou said that every tourist visiting this region spends nearly $800 per visit.
