Tourist arrivals in UK up

London: Tourist arrivals were up in January, mainly due to a significant increase in arrivals from the UK.

The travellers’ survey conducted by the statistical service showed that arrivals of tourists last month reached 81,970 compared to 75,867 in January 2018, an increase of 8 per cent. The numbers are the highest ever recorded for January.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom went up by 17.6 per cent, from 19,945 to 23,447.

There was a decrease of 2 per cent in tourist arrivals from Greece and a 27.3 per cent decrease from Russia (10,832 in January 2018 compared to 7,876 in January 2019).

The United Kingdom was the main source of tourism in January 2019, with 28.6 per cent, followed by Greece with 13.7 per cent, Israel with 10.6 per cent and Russia with 9.6 per cent.

For 53.5 per cent of tourists, the purpose of their trip in January this year was holidays, for 25.2 per cent a visit to friends and relatives and for 21.2 per cent business.