Cyprus has lost around 800,000 tourists due to sanctions against Russia.

”The market died from one day to the next,” says Christos Angelides of the country's hotel owners' association.

Cyprus was just recovering from the pandemic crisis, and tourists were starting to return, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

”This year we were expecting 800,000 Russian tourists,” says Haris Loizides, head of the Cyprus Hotel Association.

Tourism in Cyprus brought in almost the equivalent of SEK 28 billion to the country in 2019, the year before the pandemic. At that time, 3.9 million tourists came to Cyprus, of which almost 800,000 were Russians. Only the British had more.

So far this year, only 17,000 have made it to Cyprus, most of them Russians who are permanent residents in the country, and according to calculations, the loss is expected to be worth around six billion kronor.

The war has also led to increased costs for hotels in the form of higher energy prices, and Loizides is calling on the EU to intervene.

”The EU must remedy the situation and help companies, especially at a time when inflation is rampant,” he says.

Source: TT-DI.SE