NICOSIA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Brexit uncertainty has dealt a blow to tourism in Cyprus in May, according to data released by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (CYSTAT) on Tuesday.
A CYSTAT statement said that arrivals from the United Kingdom were down by 2.6 percent in May, compared with the same month in 2018.
As the United Kingdom is the biggest source for tourists travelling to Cyprus, with 36.1 percent of the total, the deficit from Britain led to an overall decrease of 3.5 percent in tourists or about 14,000 fewer tourists arriving in May compared with May of 2018, when 450,400 people arrived in the eastern Mediterranean island.
Tourists number was also down by 5.4 percent from Russia, the second largest source for Cyprus, accounting for 21.7 percent of the total.
There was, however, an increase of 9.6 percent in tourists from Sweden and 7.8 percent from Israel, the third and fourth largest sources for Cyprus tourism.
An increase in tourist arrivals in April helped contain the deficit for the January-May period to 1.1 percent, when 1,121,400 tourists arrived, compared with 1,134,100 in the same period in 2018.
Under Secretary for Tourism Savvas Perdios has said that this year would be difficult for tourism, adding that his ministry would be glad to reach last year's numbers by the end of the year.
The data were released as hoteliers complained that they faced staff shortages and that the government turned down their request to allow foreign university students to be employed in hotels during their summer vacation.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades told the annual meeting of the hoteliers association that allowing students to be employed in hotels would violate a collective agreement between trade unions and employers.
But he said that hotels could employ people from among the thousands of refugees and immigrant asylum seekers, who are currently sustained by government grants.
