The tourism industry, which accounts for about a quarter of the GDP of Cyprus, in 2020 showed the worst results in the last 37 years, writes PhileNews. Experts state: in fact, the pandemic has thrown the Cypriot tourism sector back to the early 80s of the last century.

In general, as calculated by statistics, the income of the tourism industry in the country compared to 2019 fell by 84%. Thus, in June this year, the flow of tourists to Cyprus fell by 96.7% compared to the same month a year earlier – 22,000 people against 662,000. Outbound tourism also suffered a serious blow: in the reporting month only 3% of Cypriots traveled.

Measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, introduced in Cyprus and elsewhere during the year, affected many companies and organizations directly or indirectly related to the tourism sector. These include travel agencies, hotels, car rentals, catering, excursion service providers and many others.

Forecasts for 2021 remain unclear and are highly dependent on the epidemic situation and the results of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19. The Cypriot government is looking for alternatives to the usual solutions in the field of tourism – the development of sports and medical tourism, religious tours, agrotourism.